More Dreaming The Dream

In August I wrote about Richard Sen's compilation album Dream The Dream, a ten track collection of UK ambient techno/ progressive house/ tribal house/ breakbeat. The labels don't really matter too much- the music's what matters and it's a brilliant snapshot of early 90s underground dance music, spaced out sci fi sounds, thumping drums, glassy synths, trance rhythms, music that is the result of a revolution taking place and full of wide eyed wonder at what new technology can do. Richard Sen has remixed three of the tracks from the album and they're out as an EP, available digitally at Bandcamp. All three are keepers. Unable to remix using the individual stems, Richard sampled various parts of audio and then added his own synths and drum parts, keeping the spirit of the original track but with his own essence added.  

The first is UVX's Elevator, a ten minute remix with pounding drums, bleepy synths, whirly FX and ghostly backing vox, a remix that is both moody and euphoric. 

The second track is Sen's remix of Bandulu's Amaranth- Love Lies Bleeding, eight minutes of dark ambient techno fun, an insistent throbbing synthline, propulsive drums, rattling snares and lasers. 

The third is the hardest, built on a punishing kick drum and massive wigged out topline- Mind Over Rhythm's Kubital Footstorm, the sort of thing that causes crowds to lose their collective minds. 

Smokebelch

Smokebelch, the Sabres Of Paradise track that will most likely outlive all their others turns thirty today. The 12" single was released on 20th September 1993. The fact that this is three full decades ago will make some of us feel very old. In some ways the intervening thirty years have gone in the blink of an eye but in some ways the release of this record and the world as it was then do feel a very long time ago. I was twenty three when it came out (there's that number again), just starting my teacher training course. Looking back at who and where I was then and who and where I am now it does feel like thirty years. At the same time I can clearly recall buying the 12" in HMV on Market Street, a small quantity of them in the rack at the back of the shop. I can clearly remember taking it back to the flat I shared in Altrincham and playing it over and over. It's remained close to me ever since- in December 2021 we played the Beatless mix at Isaac's funeral, at the graveside. 

In tribute to the record and to celebrate its thirtieth birthday today I thought I'd sequence the various version together, fifty minutes of Smokebelch. It's not exhaustive- the Flute Mix is missing (originally appearing on the B-side of the David Holmes remix 12" and I don't have it digitally) and so is the later, Two Lone Swordsmen version done in memory of Ali Cooke for the Cut The Crap three CD compilation.  

Sabres Of Paradise- Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns- based the track on LB Bad's New Age Of Faith, a 1989 release written by Lamont Booker. Keyboards on Smokebelch were played by Les Jumeaux, a duo also known as In The Nursery who remixed Sabres' Haunted Dancehall in 1994. The painting on the sleeve was by Richard Sen, graffiti artist, raver and DJ/ producer in his own right. The names came from Andrew noticing smoke pouring from cooling towers (someone,somewhere on the internet had a fuller version of this anecdote but I can't find it at the moment). 

The Beatless version came out later on in 1993, a 7" single given away with initial quantities of the album Sabresonic (also thirty this year, in a couple of months time. I'll come back to that nearer the time). It is four minutes of ambient gorgeousness, the twinkling melody notes pulled out and dancing like the light from the stars. 

Smokebelch I also turned up on Sabresonic, a echo- laden rhythmic monster, kick drum banging away with metallic cymbals and distorted bassline. Darker and with some '93 Weatherall techno menace, the light only appears halfway through with the alternating long synth notes. Meanwhile the drums power onwards. 

The  Smokebelch 12" single, thirty today as I keep saying, came with two versions- the Entry and Exit versions, each coming in at nearly twelve minutes. The two mixes contain those same sounds put together in a different order- the ticking, matchbox percussion, that warm bassline, the squelches, rumbling timpani, synth strings, the dancing woodblock topline, the pianos and synths, snares and thumping kick drum. Nothing fades in or out slowly, everything is lightswitch style, turned on and off, in and out, the different elements layered perfectly. We noticed over the months that followed that it worked in multiple situations- it was euphoric and ecstatic in clubs and in a crowd and could be reflective and more melancholic played at home or in a lower mood. The Exit version is pacier and taken at a greater speed. 

The David Holmes remix came out a week later clad in a yellow sleeve rather than the red one, a fuller, more intense version made for mutating dancefloors into seething messes, an acid squiggle added to it, whistles, rattling marching band snares, breakdowns, more piano and the majorettes carrying us down the road for several minutes at the end. 

Smokebelches

• Smokebelch (Beatless Mix)
• Smokebelch I
• Smokebelch II (Entry)
• Smokebelch II (Exit)
• Smokebelch II (David Holmes Mix)

Monday's Long Song

One of this year's best compilations is Dream The Dream: UK Techno, House And Breakbeat, 1990- 1994, a double album compiled by Richard Sen. The most well known name on the ten track album is Bandulu, whose 1992 track Amaranth- Love Lies Bleeding is on side one, but otherwise its mainly long lost acts and names from the world of ambient/ ambient techno, progressive house, tribal house and early trance-  obscure UK records. Centuras, Strontium 90, Orr- Some, Biff' um Baff'um Boys, Epoch 90, Mind Over Rhythm, Dream Frequency, As One and UVX. The selection and sequencing is perfect, the album working not as a series of unconnected records but sounding like a whole, a document of a time that in lots of ways still sounds like the future. 

Tokyo by Centuras opens the album, a track originally from a 1994 EP Ascension, ten minutes of slowly building ambient techno, glassy synths and layers of spacey sounds, sci fi and futuristic, with drums finally not making an appearance until three minutes in and even then taking their time. 

Tokyo

When he was DJing out in the Czech Republic in the mid- 90s Richard discovered that in Czech his name Sen translated as Dream. The name of the compilation, Dream The Dream, is a loop in itself. The sleeve art features his long filed away photos from the KAOS weekender rave in 1990, the pictures having a dreamlike quality too. 

Forty Minutes Of The Asphodells

The Asphodells formed when Andrew Weatherall and Timothy J. Fairplay realised that they had recorded enough material for an album, songs that eventually became Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust (named after a poster for a shlocky 50s gay gladiators film). The album came out in 2012, a fully realised collection of tracks with a typically diverse and eclectic set of Weatherall interests- dubby leftfield disco with New Order- esque basslines, John Betjeman, Tony Wilson quotes and AR Kane. Around the time of the album there were a slew of remixes by The Asphodells, alongside other ones from the same period but credited to Andrew Weatherall with Tim co- producing and engineering (the difference between a Weatherall remix and an Asphodells remix largely depending on who was paying and how big the cheque was apparently). 

Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust took up semi- permanent possession of my turntable for a while, an album that still rewards a decade later. It was followed by a remix album with members of the Scrutton Street Axis and wider Weatherall network on remix manoeuvres- Scott Fraser, Phil Kieran, Black Merlin, Hardway Bros, Justin Robertson, Richard Sen, Ivan Smagghe, Daniel Avery, Daniele Baldelli and DJ Rocco and Group Rhoda plus Wooden Shjips for a Record Shop Day 12". There was way too much material to cover all of this in one Sunday mix so this is a just a selection for today. 

Forty Minutes Of The Asphodells

• 200 (Asphodells Dub)
• Glock'd (The Asphodells Remix)
• Beglammered (Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Remix)
• Another Lonely City
• Needed You (The Asphodells Remix)
• Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells remix)

200 a single by Baris K, a DJ and producer from Istanbul with an interest in disco and 60s Turkish psyche. The 12" came out in 2013. The remix and dub are trippy, Middle Eastern chug of the highest order with a huge synth arpeggio and whooshes riding on top of a particularly gnarly bassline. 

Glock'd is by C.A.R., Chloe Raunet's musical outlet. Chloe was previously in Battant with Tim. Andrew and Tim's remix is one of the highlights of the entire period, a slow motion, glam rock/ sci fi stomp with Chloe's French accented vocal on top. Retro but utterly modern too. 

Beglammered was the opening track from Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, remixed by Justin and released on the remix album. Another Lonely City with its Power, Corruption And Lies bassline (played by Andy Baxter) came from the album too. 

Needed You was a remix of Berlin based band She Lies, post- punk/ dark disco. There are some lovely wobbly, throbbing sequencers and synths on this one. 

Songs Of Pressure was by Richard Sen whose links with Andrew went back to Sabres Of Paradise (he painted the sleeve art for Theme). For the dubbed out splendour of the remix Andrew added a vocal part- Andrew's vocals were a distinctive part of The Asphodells, and it seemed right that they should finish this mix off. 

Perry, Dexter, Lumux, Cleveland, Grain And Ships

Perry Granville continues to roll through 2022 at a rate of knots. Back in July he released Lumux and before that the still heavily played round here splendour of Dexter In Dub (and the joyous Bedford Falls Players remix). I've posted Dexter In Dub before and make no apology for putting it here again, six minutes of sunset seeking Balearica.

At the end of August Perry let Cleveland Sunday loose, a juddering acid house/ techno bleepfest complete with a supercharged Pete Bones mix that sets out for the outer limits. You can listen and buy at Bandcamp. Perry followed this with an end of September release called Grain Underground that wears Perry's formative influence of hip hop on its tracksuit top sleeve, a breakbeat led track with squiggly acid lines and cymbal splashes and melange of voices. Richard Sen provides a rib rattling remix, bassline and rimshots, and then after several minutes some gorgeous rippling synth lines while keeping the funk flowing. 

Back in 2020 Perry released Sailing Ships, a long, transportative, dancefloor oriented track with samples from U.S. TV news about the origins of house music, a screwed acidic bassline, some massive synth riffs, chopped up stuttering backing vocals and a thumping big drum track. 

The remix EP is about to make its appearance on vinyl, with some heavyweight names on remix duties- Hardway Bros meets Monkton Uptown (Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray) and Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s. You can order it here if the sound of that floats your boat/ sails your ship. 

Forty Minutes Of Andrew Weatherall Remixes For Convenanza

The Convenanza festival held at Carcasonne in south west France is in its third day today, the first festival since 2019 and the first since Andrew Weatherall died in February 2020. Convenanza started as an Andrew Weatherall and friends three day festival held inside the walls of the Medieval castle, organised by Bernie Fabre with a hand picked line up reflecting Weatherall's singular and eclectic worldview- acid house, dub, space rock, gnostic sonics, leftfield literature, artists painting the castle walls in trippy yellow stripes and performances from Andrew as DJ and as Woodleigh Research Facility with sets over the years from the likes of Silver Apples, The Liminanas, Red Axes, Baris K and Curses. This year the three nights have seen headlining sets by David Holmes with support including Glok, Ian Svenonius, The Utopia Strong, Manfredas and Sean Johnston/ ALFOS. I've never been to Convenanza, it's the wrong time of year for a teacher to be flying to south west France for a weekend of debauchery, but one day I shall no longer be bound by school holidays and if Bernie still puts Convenanza on, I shall be there. In the meantime I live Convenanza vicariously through updates from friends who are there. In tribute to the festival and Andrew Weatherall todays forty minute mix is a Convenanza friendly set of Weatherall remixes from the last decade, the hissy drum machine, space echo, arpeggiator and sequencers all deployed, setting the controls for the heart of le sol.

Forty Minutes Of Andrew Weatherall Remixes

• Group Rhoda: King (The Asphodells Remix)
• Richard Sen: Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells Remix)
• The Venetians: Son Sur Son (Andrew Weatherall Edition Uno)
• Silver Apples: Edge Of Wonder (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Heretic: Pollux (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• The Twilight Sad: Videograms (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• Andrew Weatherall: Intro

We are making our own pilgrimage today, to Childhood Wood on the edge of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. The MPS Society, the charity who look after children and adults born with the set of genetic diseases, have a piece of woodland where they invite families to plant a tree in memory of those who have died. We're going there today to plant an oak sapling for Isaac and to see him added to the memory board. Another moment of grief and remembrance in a year full of them. 

Saturday Theme Thirteen: Bumper Sabres Of Paradise Edition

I'm surprised it's taken me thirteen weeks to get around to posting this theme but here we are. It's a bank holiday weekend here in the UK (and I'll pass over all the nonsense of the platinum jubilee other than to say I think that democratic nations should elect their leaders, even ones with no real powers). But as a bank holiday bonus I thought we'd have a bumper edition of the Saturday Theme theme with not one, not two,  not even three or four but five versions of Theme (or The Theme) by Andrew Weatherall's magnificent 90s dub/ techno outfit The Sabres Of Paradise, all sequenced together in order in one mix. 

Sabres Themes 1- 4 Plus Remix

• Theme
• Theme II
• Theme III
• Theme 4
• Theme (Underdog Vs. Sabres)

Theme was released as a 12" in 1994, a Richard Sen graffiti adorned sleeve housing a massive piece of music, almost eight minutes of crunchy hip hop drums, distorted guitar and a blaring horn sample (which a Discogs user has spotted as being from Yello's Jungle Bill. Weatherall/ Sabres previously remixed Jungle Bill in 1992). There's some clattering percussion halfway through and the repeated build up of bass and horns. The long fade out with sounds twisting round and round themselves, ricocheting round the speakers is very nice. 

Theme II came out via a freebie magazine cassette giveaway, the long gone Select Magazine Secret Tracks tape, attached to the front of the magazine in April 1994, a six minute version of the original, taking the less obvious route and with some metallic percussion straight from the Haunted Dancehall sound bank and a load of reverb laden sounds at the back of the mix. 

Theme III was on the Theme CD single, a five minute version that starts out like underwater dub, the sound of wire being stretched, a muffled kick drum, percussion distorted and bent so much they're turning in on themselves, the two note bass throb isolated at the fore and a lot of echo and hiss- the drums eventually break through but it's all slower and hazier

Theme 4 was on Haunted Dancehall, and picks up where Theme III left off, a sub- two minute ambient/ dub take, the original completely deconstructd, a version of a version of a version. At the time Weatherall said PiL's Metal Box was a big influence and you can hear that on the multiple versions of Theme, especially II through to 4, the ghosts of Lydon, Wobble, Levene and various drummers making themselves known. 

Theme (Underdog Vs. Sabres) is a remix by The Underdog which came out on 10" in 1994, following the release of the original 12". It starts with some uptempo house allowed to run for a few bars before a needle is abruptly pulled off the vinyl and drums burst in, and rapper Dominick takes the mic, South London pirate radio style all over the Sabres, ragga vocal and samples dropped in ('move and groove like a pit bull', 'you could get a slap for that'), gunshots, a grinding bassline, some of the original's horns and guitar surviving the makeover. Apparently Underdog (Trevor Jackson) believed Sabres to be a straight house act (hence the piss take opening section of his remix) and thought the original Theme was a half arsed attempt at hip hop. He sent back a remix which showed them how to do it properly. Weatherall reportedly thought this was hilarious, ensuring that the remix came out as a standalone 10" release.  

His Definition Of Funk

Richard Sen, an old school graffiti writer turned DJ/ producer, has recently released a three track 12" led by a nine minute electro- funk A-side titled My Definition Of Funk. Built on a pulsing sequencer line, kick drum and synth stabs, the rhythms build getting chunkier and tougher. At one minute thirty a huge descending/ ascending bassline bounces in and vibrates round your speakers. Break beat and wonky synths come in with squealing topnotes. At five minutes there's a breakdown and Richard adds some Plastic Dreams style organ and then brings that rubbery bassline back, more sirens, breakbeat, rinse and repeat. It's a massively exhilarating piece of music, the sort of thing that leads to drinks being spilt and floors being ruined at parties.

Richard Sen's past includes music made as Hackney Vandal Patrol and Padded Cell and numerous one off singles for a variety of labels. In 2015 his Songs Of Pressure was remixed by Andrew Weatherall- one for another day perhaps. Back even further, in 2008, he remixed a track called Toys by Hedford Vachal, a crunchy piece of day- glo 00s acid house/ dark disco, a choppy guitar riff and bleepy synthline over looped bass and drum machine. A distorted vocal sings 'I remember a time/ when we were young/ so unsophisticated/ now everything has changed'. The synths go all wonked out and the vocal returns, warning about girls and boys hurting each other. The breakdown comes and is all filtered FX, handclaps and buzzing synths, before it all goes off again as the bass and drums come back in.

Toys (Richard Sen Remix)

Strange World

It turns out that Ghent, Belgium is the actual centre of the dance/ Balearic/ electronic/ indie/ disco world, the place where all the lines converge. Rheinzand, a trio from that town, made one of last year's best albums, a cross pollinating, shiny, slinky record, vivid, alive and brightly coloured that pushed all the right buttons and sounds equally good played through headphones while walking, in the car while commuting or on your home stereo system at volume. Strange World is a builder, growly and insistent with some Spaghetti Western whistling and a red hot slow motion glow. 

Strange World

A four track remix EP came out recently with four different songs from the album tackled by four different, sympathetic remixes- Hardway Bros, Red Axes, In Flagranti and Richard Sen. Sen's version of Strange World is here at Bandcamp, a ten minute odyssey built around an acid house sequencer and drum machine, making the song more streamlined but just as out there. Bells ring, strings swoop, the bassline hypnotises, drums pad away.

Monday's Long Song

David Holmes' Unloved project is a 60s via the 21st century sound, L.A. girl groups and Jack Nitzsche filtered through his thirty year DJ/ production/ soundtrack career. To date Unloved are two albums in, several singles and remixes, and a large part of the soundtrack of BBC's Killing Eve. There's a nine track remix e.p. available with reworkings of the song Why Not by Gwenno, Phil Keiran, Hardway Bros and The Vendetta Suite plus this, almost nine minutes of throb, echo and mystery via Richard Sen (there's a remix and a dub version).



Phil Kieran's remix is shorter, just shy of six minutes, but it's a blast, a funked up 60s spy film bassline, some horns, clattering percussion and a mad, driving energy. Occasionally it surfaces, vocals drifting in, before everything submits again to the pulse of the rhythm.



The Hardway Bros, Vendetta Suite and Gwenno remixes, it goes without saying, are all excellent too. Buy the whole package at Bandcamp. There's a limited four track vinyl release too which may well be sold out.

Dissident Again

Glok's Dissident album was one of my favourites of last year. It has just been joined by a companion album, eleven remixes of songs from the original. One of them, the Leaf edit, came out last year but the rest are all new and of a very high standard. It occurred to me when the vinyl arrived that this will be one of the last times a new track is released bearing the words Andrew Weatherall Remix in brackets after it. Andrew's remix of Cloud Cover is a slowed down, chilly, electronic groove, ghostly synths and deep bass and a rattling snare drum, the sound of high rises and underpasses.



There's plenty else to get into across the double vinyl/ eleven digital songs. Andy Bell's own fifteen minute remix of Pulsing is a joy, quarter of an hour of ambient/ shoegaze crossover. The Minotaur Shock Remix of Weaver and C.A.R. remix of the same song take the same source material and end up in very different places with it. Timothy Clerkin's new version of Projected Sounds is a stunner, an intense acid crawl with trippy backing vocals and buzzsaw synths.



Richard Sen's eight minute remix of the title track opens the album, a dark, heavy groove with guitars and spaced out sounds bouncing around, the wah wah riff dropping in and out, skyscraping solo notes and a juddering bass riff, a remix designed for soundsystems in the woods long after dark.

Isolation Mix Nine- Weatherdub

It's difficult to know where we are with isolation any more. Many people seem to be acting like it's all over, parks are full of groups of people and social distancing is a thing of last month. The daily death toll doesn't seem to be diminishing that much and in the north west we currently have the highest regional infection and death rate in the country. As the government brings about the end of lockdown in favour of the economy and to distract from the horrors of their mismanagement of the entire period, some people I'm sure will stay in and stay distanced. In our household we are shielding so our lives will carry on as before for the moment. God only knows where we go from here.

Isolation Mix 9 came partly from a comment I made at The Flightpath Estate, an Andrew Weatherall Facebook group where I promised a Weatherdub mix, and partly from Isolation Mix 6 three weeks ago, an hour of dub that had several of Lord Sabre's fingerprints on it. There's some crossover between that mix and this one but I chose the other Steve Mason remix and dropped the Sabres Of Paradise dub of Regret by New Order just for variety's sake. This mix, an hour and a quarter of dub business from Andrew Weatherall as a solo artist, aided and abetted by Nina Walsh, as a remixer, as a Sabre Of Paradise and as an Asphodell, spans thirty years taking in songs from 1990 and 2020. There's loads more that could have gone in but I thought I'd keep it compact.

Sabres Of Paradise: Ysaebud (From The Vaults)

Sabres Of Paradise: Return of Carter

Steve Mason: Boys Outside (Andrew Weatherall Dub 1)

Andrew Weatherall: Unknown Plunderer

Saint Etienne: Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Andrew Weatherall Mix)

Sabres Of Paradise: Edge 6

Andrew Weatherall: End Times Sound

Meatraffle: Meatraffle On The Moon (Andrew Weatherall Dub)

Richard Sen: Songs Of Pressure (The Asphodells Remix)

Andrew Weatherall: Kiyadub 45

Lark: Can I Colour In Your Hair? (Andrew Weatherall Version)

Planet 4 Folk Quartet: Message To Crommie

Sensation

Trax was the legendary Chicago label that put out early house records, tracks like No Way Back by Adonis, Jamie Principle and Frankie Knuckles' Your Love, Can You Feel It by Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson's Move Your Body and Phuture's Acid Trax- pretty much the records that invented the scene.

In 2011 with the involvement of Bill Brewster, a DJ and writer who knows his onions, they put out an album of re-edits. Seven years on the album is a bit hit and miss although some of the reworkings sound pretty good (it'd be difficult to make a complete mess consdering the source material). Some of the re-edits are a bit too safe, missing the weirdness and WTF-ness of the original tunes, too reverential. In most cases you'll want to hear the original straight after, just to confirm its mid-80s brilliance. The re-edits also tend to sound a bit samey, using the same kit and software that was then the cutting edge in 2011. But there are some worthy efforts in the double cd. Ron Hardy was as much as anyone at the centre of the mid-80s Chicago house scene, DJing with twin turntables and a reel to reel tape-deck and producing tracks too. Richard Sen's re-edit of Sensation is a juddering monster with synth stabs...

Sensation (Richard Sen Re-edit)

Toby Tobias and Sean Johnston's Hardway Bros add some sparkle and shimmer to Adonis' We're Rockin' Down The House...

We're Rockin' Down The House (Toby Tobias and Hardway Bros Re-edit)

Love Is Enough

Plus Instruments were an early 80s industrial/electronic pop outfit, the work of Truus de Groot and whoever else was around (this included Jim Sclavunus from Grinderman with Nick Cave). After thirty years out of the game Truus returned recently and now Love Is Enough has been remixed for a 12" by Khidja, Luke Solomon and Richard Sen. In a piece of happy synchronicity Richard Sen did the cover art for Sabres Of Paradise's Smokebelch 12" which I posted a few days ago. I chanced upon the Sen remix yesterday, a dark house reworking with a thumping kick drum, trippy strings and icy vocals. The video is pretty hypnotic too.

Songs Of Pressure

Harriet Andersson starred in yesterday's cover star Ingmar Bergman's 1953 film Summer With Monika. I saw this still and others from the film and thought, phew, blimey etc.

This has just come out on 12" vinyl, Richard Sen's Songs Of Pressure. Driven by a massive bassline with sound system dub effects all over it. There's an even more dubbed out Asphodells remix on the other side that I posted last year. Richard Sen started out as a graffiti  artist, recorded as Padded Cell and Bronx Dogs, djs and remixes, and collects pine cones which he classifies and displays according to size, shape and colour. I may have made that last bit up.

Songs Of Pressure

There's a burst of Weatherall related activity here currently- what's new? you might ask.
This is an Asphodells remix of a new Richard Sen song. I think Weatherall may be singing on it- quite dark and dubby.

Night Navigator

Something deep, dark and sexy for Saturday night, brand new from Richard Sen and remixed by Scott Fraser. Somewhere in the intersection of acid, techno and house.

The Strange Art

Today I have withdrawn my labour in protest against Michael Gove and his plans to further alienate the teaching profession. The Secretary of State for Education seems to have the view that teachers are the enemy and that the education system must be destroyed. Unfortunately striking will achieve precisely nothing- but when asked to strike I believe we should.

I don't know who FK Club are but this song/remix package is ace, in an Asphodells and A Love From Outer Space vein. The original mix is fairly full on, drums and an up-in-the-mix hi hat, an insistent piano riff, a bassline like a rubber band being repeatedly twanged just inches from your earhole, nicely repetitive. Of the remixes Richard Sen's is the one for me, adding bongos and a new, whopping great big bassline, although the others are no slouches. The In Flagrante one is a free download, the rest were released on vinyl a little while ago.

You Think Girls And Boys Are Just Toys

I've posted the Richard Sen remix of Toys by Hedford Vachal before, back in the early days of this blog when somewhere between three and five people were reading it. It came up on the mp3 player in the car driving home from work yesterday and I knew I had to post it again. Released in 2008 on the ever-reliable Tirk Records this is a magnificent remix by Mr Sen,  Nu-Disco or something like that. It's got a wonderful descending bassline, wonky synths, handclaps, a big bleepy bit just before the breakdown, ... oh just listen to it. You'll love it. And it might wear the carpet out if you play it late at night after you've had a few.

Toys (Richard Sen Remix)

For no particular reason the picture with this post shows an aviator from the 1920s, photographed by German portraitist photographer August Sander.

Hedford Vachel 'Toys' (Richard Sen Remix)

Great dance record to brighten up your Sunday, from 2006 Hedford Vachal (shrugs all round? Me too) remixed by Richard Sen. Vocoder vox, descending disco bassline, squiggles and squelches, long breakdown in middle- it's got the lot. 

  Toys _ Alan Vs Gary_03_Toys (Richard Sen Remix).mp3