Wrote For Luck, Takes Me Higher

There was further sad news at the weekend with the announcement of the death of Paul Ryder aged fifty eight. Paul aka Horse was brother of Shaun and the bass player in Happy Mondays, and when you listen to their records you realise how much of their unearthly groove was due to his basslines. Self taught and trying to copy the basslines from Motown, Parliament and Funkadelic and house records, his basslines are the foundation on which the Mondays were able to base their chaos. I first saw them at the Mountford Hall, Liverpool University in March 1989, a gig like no other, the entire room dancing from front to back, the stage a shadowy blur with Shaun sitting on the drum riser to deliver his stream of consciousness street poetry for most of the gig, Bez appearing through the dry ice, grinning and bug eyed. Paul and guitarist Mark were left and right, shrouded in darkness churning out their weirded out funk rock grooves and noise. They finished, as they had to, with Wrote For Luck.

Wrote For Luck (Dance Mix)

This performance has the band in full flight on Club X in September 1989. Club X was on Channel 4, one of the channels late 80s, late night programmes aimed at catching the youth audience. 

RIP Paul Ryder.

Another long lost/ never seen before TV performance from the 1989/ 1990 period came my way a few days ago, this time loved up rave heroes The Beloved. The group are miming (unlike the Mondays) but this clip of them doing Your Love Takes Me Higher on Hit Studio International, recorded at Limehouse in London, is rather good and a perfect little time capsule.

Your Love Takes Me Higher is a superb piece of house- pop, encapsulating the optimism and wide eyed feel of the times. The Beloved duo Jon and Steve have expanded to a full band for TV appearances drafting in friends, everyone giving it everything, all long hair, long sleeved t-shirts and baggy jeans. 

Your Love Takes Me Higher (Demo)

Sparking Plugs And Suburbia

I don't know what Sean Johnston has been drinking recently but it's done wonders for his productivity and the sheer quantity of Hardway Bros remixes has been matched by the quality- every single one is a keeper. This one came out two days ago, a remix of Sparking Plugs by Deo'Jorge from an EP on Newcastle- upon- Tyne's Me Me Me label. The Hardway Bros Sueno Cosmico remix sounds like a party in a rainforest, a rave in an aviary (a raviary?). Nine minutes of tropical cosmic Balearic joy. Buy it here. 

Sean's remix of James Bright's Suburbia, the Hardway Bros 'ALFOS Has Risen' Remix is in part a celebration of the all night travelling roadshow he instigated with Andrew Weatherall eleven years ago, now revived single handed. The remix is a gloriously chilled dreamy dance track that teases us with hints of The Beloved's ambient house classic The Sun Rising. Buy it here. 

Session Rising

The Beloved's 1990 single The Sun Rising is seen as a sunset song, chilled out ambient house for the moment when the night starts to get going, and also as a bit of comedown classic, morning after music. This version from Mark Goodier's Radio 1 Evening Session in September 1990 is way too thumping for either moment, more a full on, here comes the rush, hands- in- the- air with eyes tightly closed soundtrack. Jon Marsh remixed it live in the studio for the session, pushing everything up, up and away- bells arriving at forty seconds, the driving bassline, the piano and the appearance of the vocal sample at two minutes thirty- three, all hair raising and ecstatic. 

The Sun Rising (Evening Session Remix)

The Kind Of Love That Leaves Me Burning With Desire

Last year was the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Happiness by The Beloved, an album which is wall- to- wall, smile inducing, MDMA fuelled, dance- pop. By 1989 the two members of the group (Jon Marsh and Steve Waddington) had seen their line up slim down from a guitar- based four piece, heavily influenced by New Order but not really heading anywhere in particular, to a duo acquiring a drum machine and a sampler. Jon had been to New York in 1987 and when he returned to London began to throw himself into the new sound, both him and guitarist Steve becoming enthusiastic attendees at Shoom! and Spectrum. Happiness is one of 1990's key albums, loved up, hedonistic, bright eyed and wide eyed with tunes aplenty. If you want to see the effect that the period had on them, this version of Your Love Tales Me Higher is perfect, a shuddering, body shaking jolt of love, lust and electricity that may rewire your central nervous system. 

Your Love Takes Me Higher (Piano/ 303 Demo)

Love Is Just A State Of Mind

Happiness by The Beloved is yet another album that has turned thirty years old this year and is about to be re- issued on double vinyl. Happiness and its singles sound like a big part of 1990 when I hear them now, a record perfectly in tune with the times. Reduced to a duo, Jon Marsh and Steve Waddington wanted to leave the indie guitar scene behind, fired up by the new music they were hearing. Marsh had been to Shoom and Spectrum in 1988 and has spoken of the experiences as being life- changing. With a few new pieces of equipment they set about making an album fusing dance music and pop and the songs they created succeeded massively. Up, Up And Away is 1990 positivity and optimism bottled- 'up, up and away/ hello new day... just look around you/ well it ain't no lie/ H A P P Y'. Your Love Takes Me Higher is the same but for hedonism and love. Don't You Worry, Wake Up Soon, Time After Time... these are the songs of and for people with wide eyes and big smiles and living in the moment. Album closer Found was 1990's most New Order sounding song.

The Sun Rising was their breakthrough single in '89, an ambient house classic with the goosebump bassline kicking in from the off, backwards guitar, an instantly recognisable madrigal sample, and Jon's whispered vocal, a song describing the end of the night, the walk home at dawn, spent but euphoric.

The Sun Rising

The songs on Happiness encapsulate the period as much as many others do, and are probably heard best on a car cassette player or your late teens/ early 20s bedroom stereo, an album reflecting what was going on in clubs and the wider culture. A year later The Beloved released Blissed Out, an album of remixes of songs from Happiness plus a new single It's Alright Now, different versions and tracklists across different formats of lp, cassette and CD. I've posted this clip before, The Beloved promoting It's Alright Now on BBC 2's Dance Energy programme. It's Alright Now is a perfectly judged piece of dance- pop. Why it wasn't a bigger hit is a mystery to me.

Beloved

In 1990 The Beloved, converts to dance from indie, put out an album called Happiness that was wide-eyed and progressive, full of the spirit and technology of the time. It was followed by a sister album of remixes and versions and a new song which they hoped would take them into the charts but didn't (It's Alright Now), one of the period's lost records. Blissed Out had a different number of tracks depending on which format you shelled out for, eight on the vinyl, eleven on the cd and sixteen on cassette (hardly anyone I knew had a cd player in 1990 and not buying cds was almost an act of faith and resistance- how times change).

Jon Marsh Tweeted yesterday that the cassette version was now available to buy/stream at the usual online stores so those extra tracks previously found on the tape were now out there again officially. The pick of these are the two final ones- firstly, the Timeless Dub of Don't You Worry is a dub- house treat (remix credited to Adam and Eve, a remix pseudonym for Jon and his wife Helena). Seems wrong to post mp3s of these two songs when they were only re-released yesterday and you can buy the pair for less than £2 so videos only I'm afraid...



Secondly the track Acid Love (from 1988) a proper UK acid house tune with a hazy vocal, in thrall to the sounds coming out of Chicago and Detroit, Phuture and Pierre, and designed to send ripples up and down your spine.



And here is the album version of one of the peaks from Happinesss, a song about being in ove with being in love...

Your Love Takes Me Higher

The photo at the top of this post is from an interview with Jon and Steve in The Face, published in November 1990. If you want the full hit,  the interview and pages of the magazine are at Test Pressing. 

As The Day Begins

Briefly in 1990 The Beloved made some very good music, perfectly in tune with the times- a run of singles, the 1990 album Happiness and its remixed counterpart from a year later Blissed Out and the not-a-hit It's Alright Now single. This Melody Maker front cover is dated 27th January 1990 and shows where the inkies were at that point- Loop, Carter USM, Baby Ford and The Shamen show the twin pleasures of noisy guitars and the dancefloor while The Cult, Mantronix and Psychic TV bring the mid 80s back. Tanita Tikaram was available for interview twenty seven years ago too.

The Sun Rising is a fast paced, slinky groove with that female vocal sample that Orbital also used (on Belfast). Music made from optimism with a sense of endless possibilities.

The Sun Rising

I chanced upon this NME cutting yesterday too, a review of The Beloved playing the Hacienda (5th March 1990 I think, according to some internet research), supported by local heroes The High and a dj called Andrew Weatherall. I may get around to posting something by him sooner or later.

I Think It's Time To Make The Floor Burn

I've been having some fun watching these clips on Youtube recently. Dance Energy was BBC 2's attempt to capture early 90s youth culture. To be far to the Beeb Snub TV was an excellent half hour weekly look at the indie scene with some essential live clips and interviews. For Dance Energy they got Normski in as presenter. Normski may be best described as an acquired taste (although many internet commenters seem to prefer the word bellend). Dance Energy ran on a Monday evening, straight after The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air and had 'live' performances in the studio from dance and hip hop acts. Unlike the majority of 1960s TV music programmes, where there's no doubt that the groups are better dressed and better coiffured than the audience, on Dance Energy the crowd are the real stars. here's a few I've picked out...

Steve Cobby's band from this time was Ashley and Jackson (they played Cities In The Park which is why I think I came across this on Youtube while looking for clips of that event for my post a couple of weeks ago). Solid Gold was going to be Ashley and Jackson's breakthrough single but it never really happened for them in terms of having a hit. This clip from 1991 starts with the titles and theme music which will push all kinds of buttons for some of you of a certain age...



Bassomatic's Fascinating Rhythm was a top ten hit in 1990 and still sounds pretty good today although that style of rapping has dated. This song aside Bassomatic are also known for having a pre-Madonna/All Saints William Orbit on board.



Yo! Here comes Normski again! This is Bizarre Inc, hugely popular up here in the north, with Playing With Knives. I love this record, it's crunching keyboard riffs, repetitive, cyclical vocals and breakbeat- and the on stage dancers.



And this is a beauty, The Beloved's It's Alright Now, a properly blissful, house tune, all positivity and optimism. Again this should have been a massive hit and wasn't.



Lastly for the moment The Shamen. Like The Beloved they started as an indie guitar band and then moved into dance music when it hit them. This performance of Hyperreal is pretty smart, the best version of this song, and has Will Sin in the group, before his untimely death in Tenerife in May 1991.



There's loads more of this on Youtube if you want more. And why wouldn't you?

Found

Wasting time on social media recently I followed a link to the video for Hello by The Beloved- you know the one, funky drummer drums, crunchy guitar and a slightly silly, wide-eyed list of people to say hello to including Peter, Paul, Tommy Cannon, Bobby Ball, Little Richard, Willy Wonka, William Tell, Salman Rushdie, Kym Mazelle, Mork and Mindy, Barry Humphries, Billy Corkhill, Fred Astaire, Desmond Tutu, Zippy, Bungle, Jean Paul Sartre...

A click or two away I found Found, the closer off their Happiness album. A different kettle of fish entirely. It's like the Bunnymen on E or New Order at sunrise. Or a blissed out Beloved in 1989. Lovely.

Found

It's Just The Sun Rising

Echorich frequently leaves the most considered comments here and the man also has exquisite taste. When I posted A Man Called Adam's Barefoot In The Head he offered the opinion that that record and this one here today were among the three best songs of their ilk. The Beloved's Sun Rising is a peach, a song that sounds like it's title. It has been remixed to death but sometimes the original mix is all you need. The bass, whispered vocals and electronic rhythm- sublime.

The Sun Rising

Polar explorer Tom Crean must have seen many sun rises though possibly not in the altered state that The Beloved were writing about. Got to love a man in sub-zero temperatures who still smokes his pipe.

The Beloved 'It's Alright Now' (7inch Mix)

The Beloved started life as an indie guitar band, but in the late 80s something changed, and they became rave evangelists, throwing away their guitars and some band members and embracing samplers and drum machines, and synths. Their album Happiness was in tune with the times, and featured several hits, including the daft but funny list song Hello, the blissed out The Sun Rising and the fake orgasmic Your Love Takes Me Higher. Good stuff all told.

This song, It's Alright Now, was released at the end of 1990, and failed to make the top 40. I wrote a good few months back that sometimes dance singles work best on 7", and gave Little Fluffy Clouds as an example. It's Alright Now is another one. There are a variety of mixes and versions but this is the only one I need. It's got a great start, doesn't outstay it's welcome and bounces along. Underneath the 90s positivity of the lyric there's some regret, some ruefulness, which makes it do that thing that dance music can do so well: happy-sad.

It's Alright Now (7inch Mix).mp3 - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download