I'm At The Ramada

Sometimes Lana Del Rey hits to the spot so sweetly and perfectly that I can believe all the press about her- sometimes her albums leave me with the sense that a lot of songs just wash over the listener, a minute after one finishes it hasn't left much behind but, when she gets it right, she really gets it right. 

A&W came out earlier this year, on Valentine's Day, and is a psychedelic folk pop gem with a second half bolted to it that shifts everything elsewhere. A piano and reverb and an acoustic guitar fade in, clumsy at first, then taking shape. Lana sings in that breathy way she does, sounding like she's just woken up after a heavy night but swiftly a choral multitracked Lana flies in. There are some classic Lana lines- 'I haven't done a cartwheel since I was nine/ I haven't seen my mother in a long long time' and 'this is the experience of being an American whore' and 'called up one drunk/ called up another' among many. 

Then the second half kicks in, a stuttering grimy drum machine and dirty bassline, sounding like they've come in from another record entirely. Now she sounds woozy, dislocated, a headful of pills. The experimental, skeletal hip hop drums and bass underpin Lana singing with a mouth filled with cotton wheel, 'Jimmy only love me when he wanna get high' and then with much more clarity, 'Your mom called/ I told her/ You're fucking up big time'. 

A&W

Anzu

C.A.R. make a return with a single called Anzu, Chloe Raunet's vocal describing scenes of past life, youth, excess and living in the shadows, an electro pop topline with a somewhat darker undertow. It's a beguiling sound, one that grows as the single unfolds over five minutes.  

For the remix Andy Bell (wearing his GLOK hat) pushes the song further and deeper, way beyond where GLOK usually sit too with an anxiety inducing build up that keeps increasing the tension for over two minutes, a hiccup, a drone, skippity drums and a voice intoning 'basement sounds'. As the bassline weaves its way in, distorted way into the red, there's a drop out at two minutes twenty and then the bassline leads the way, even more messed up and mangled. Chloe's chopped up voice returns and then the drums and Andy sends it onwards into the darkest of dancefloors. Anzu (GLOK's Basement Sounds Mix, Arpless) is in a field of its own. You can buy both digitally here and there's a clear vinyl 7", only 50 copies pressed complete with tote bag and poster priced at £35.00.

Unknown Territories In Salford

The Eagle Inn is a pub/ gig venue just over the Irwell into Salford. On Saturday night Rikki Turner's latest/ final musical outfit played their first/ only gig there, a small but committed crowd turning out to see Rikki's last musical endeavours before he retires from the music industry (although like Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in Godfather 3, as soon as he gets out they keep dragging him back in). Unknown Territories are more of a collective than a band, a cast of vocalists led by Rikki on one mic and Esther Maylor, the owner of a powerful voice, on the other with spoken word contributions from Sean Crossey and ex- Inspiral Carpet Tom Hingley. Sean played support as DJ and performs his spoken word sections from behind the decks, the beats and music very much in a Massive Attack/ Tricky  area, while Sean recites his words about the state he used to get into when he was a drinker- 'I was a bad pisshead', he tells us- and his route to recovery. 

After a couple of songs Tom Hingley moves from the shadows to the centre stage, a man who has performed in front of thousands of people in the past, now in a much more intimate setting but still very much a pro, his words delivered with real intent. The beats get thumpier, Martin's synths sound like they should be heard in a much bigger room, Esther's singing and stage presence fills the space, and Rikki grins, overseeing everything from side of the stage. The gig is the latest Rikki Turner victory, after Paris Angels, The New Southern Electrikk and The Hurt, Unknown Territories are off and running. 

Broken was Unknown Territories first release, a single out back in November with the album scheduled for next year. After the gig Rikki is all smiles. Last ever gig? Retirement? Time will tell....

Support came from Ruins, a Liverpool duo, with guitar and melodic New Order/ Cure inspired basslines and the superb falsetto voice of singer Lloyd Rock. This song, Way To Fall, stood out in their set but the rest of the songs they played were just as striking- dreamy, gliding indie pop. 

Monday's Long Song

This is one of several songs that have come to me at a late stage in the year and leapt up the list of the best of 2023. It came to me via David Holmes' recent NTS radio show, God's Waiting Room, sequenced late in his two hour slot. Do You This Record Marius? is the opening track on Transmissions Part 1, the first piece on a pair of EPs by Rumanian duo Khidja and is right up there in terms of intense acid house/ dark Balkan cosmiche, eight minutes of spinning, swirling heady trip music. The ten tracks were put out as two EPs, split across two releases, seventy minutes of dense, rhythmic, psychedelic experimental techno music. Get them here. 

Do You Know This Record Marius?

An Hour Of 2023 In Dub

While starting to consider the end of year lists of records, singles, albums, EPs and gigs it struck me that much of what I've listened to this year has been very dub oriented, the rhythms and sounds of Jamaica and its 2023 diaspora very much near the forefront of everything. As my list making began and the scribbling lengthened and grew, it seemed that a dub stop off in advance of the main event might be a good way to fill this Sunday's slot, an hour of dubby tunes to ease into the day as the week of the shortest days and longest nights approaches. There's loads missing that could have been included, not least the dubs of songs by JIM and Richard Norris' Oracle Sounds album, so this isn't definitive, it's just a version. 

An Hour Of 2023 In Dub

• Katy J. Pearson: Willow's Song (Richard Norris Ritual Mix)
• Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright: El Qasr Dub
• Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s: Lone Raver In Dub
• Sonic Boom and Panda Bear: Edge Of The Edge Dub
• Stinky Jim: Quiet Spillage (The Long Champs Remix)
• Unloved: Thrill me (Justin Robertson's Temple Of Wonders Remix)
• Whitelands: Setting Sun (AR Kane Initiation Dub)
• Electric Blue Vision: Other Skies (Hardway Bros Meet Monkton Uptown Version)
• Dot Allison: Unchanged (Glok Remix)
• African Head Charge: I Chant Too

Katy J. Pearson's cover of Willow's Song came out in several new versions as part of a five disc celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Wicker Man in June. Richard Norris' dub mix is seven minutes of peak 2023 dubiness, the bassline and Katy's voice and that haunting horn all pushed to the fore. Richard's Oracle Sounds Volume 1 has been one of 2023's highlights, an album of  first rate dub sounds and rhythms. Volume 2, due out in February, can be pre- ordered here. 

Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright's Psychedelic Science is one of 2023's best albums, a dub centred collision of South London and North Wales with Ram Dass, David Bowie, Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs and The Grateful Dead stirred into their dub stew. 

Lone Raver In Dub is one of Justin Robertson's from the vaults releases, out digitally as Part 4 of his Deadstock 33s Unreleased Volumes. Fast rocking dub from September 2023. 

Sonic Boom and Panda Bear's Reset album was remixed by Adrian Sherwood in full, the 60s bubblegum pop fed through the On U Sound dub machine to fine effect. Like Oracle Sounds Volume 1 an album that really reveals itself fully on vinyl. 

Stinky Jim's Social Awareness album came out as a follow up remix album in July, the original album remixed and dubbed out. Stinky Jim's dub comes all the way from Auckland, New Zealand, remixed in dub  style here by Welsh wizard The Long Champs. 

Unloved's Polychrome was a nine song album from early 23, a follow up to 2022's The Pink Album. The remixes followed a month later with Justin Robertson's taking the road to Scratch and Tubby, a rocking dub skank. 

Whitelands are a shoegaze band on Sonic Cathedral. In June a 10" single with remixes by returning shoegaze/ dreampop heroes AR Kane found its way into the wild, Rudy and Alex finding acres of dub space in among the wash of guitars. 

Electric Blue Vision, Jesse Fahnestock and Emilia Harmony, put out their Other Skies EP in November, an end of year hit in certain quarters of the internet, including this one. Hardway Bros and Monkton (Sean Johnston and Duncan Gray) often pull skanking rabbits out of dub hats when remixing together. This is among the year's best. 

Dot Allison's Consciousology, also on Sonic Cathedral, is an indie folk/ psyche/ dreamy meeting of melody and poetic lyrics. For this remix Andy Bell in GLOK guise found the dub heart of the song, somewhere in the similar cosmos as Brendan Lynch's 1993 remix of Paul Weller's Kosmos.

Aftican Head Charge's A Trip To Bolgatanga is a 2023 high spot, ten of the latest stop off points on Bonjo's four decade voyage with Adrian Sherwood.

Saturday Sets

Sean Johnston has been keeping the A Love From Outer Space flag flying high this year with ALFOS nights running in London, Glasgow and various points in between (not least Todmorden). When not playing out Sean sometime sets up at home and DJs on a Friday night, broadcasting live to an online audience, a habit that stated in lockdown and he's kept going irregularly since. At the end of November Sean played ALFOS Emergency Broadcast System 43, five hours of chug/ acid house/ nu disco/ cosmic disco/ whatever else you want to call it as long as it's got a pulsing rhythm, opening with an edit of Police And Thieves by The Clash and finishing with Lindstrom. It's well worth five hours of your Saturday, either in one sitting or in chunks. Listen at Mixcloud. 

Sean's compiling a list of the big 2023 ALFOS tunes which will I'm sure contain this monster, a dancefloor wrecking tune, Stay On Top by Living In Ghosts featuring Woolfy, the Hardway Bros Dub, which throbs and bounces as the bass grinds and the vocal chants, 'work!'. Highly effective and impactful under red lights and a mirror ball. 

Dirt Bogarde And Bedford Falls

Some mid- December dancefloor action for Friday, mid- advent chug and throb of Balearica and acid house. I'm desperately resisting the urge to type the word 'madvent'- and have failed. 

Back in April I clicked play on Heavy Blotter by Dirt Bogarde and was hit hard by it, nine minutes of  speaker rattling acid house thump, tingles down my spine and overloaded senses. In June I played it at the Golden Lion, the Lion's sound system magnifying it to the power of ten. Since then Dirt has released monthly transmissions via Bandcamp, the latest coming out today. Out Into The Gap is another slide sideways, Dirt not content to repeat himself- low slung and squelchy, a dark drive through the city at night as seen through the windows of the back seat of a car. There's some Detroit in this one, Carl Craig circa Landcruising maybe, synth flutters and chords on top and a second half that punches back in, drums and synths going off all the place. Out In To The Gap is at Dirt's Bandcamp today. 

Straight outta Windsor, Matt Gunn's label Electric Wardrobe Records is set to release a three track EP from Bedford Falls Players today, two BFP tracks and a Bedford Falls remix of Matt. Bedford Falls Players is Mark Cooper, DJ and producer, a man who really knows his stuff. The first track, Marmite Marimba, is a beauty, full of buzzing, fizzing sounds plus the titular instrument weaving a melody line on top. At two and a half minutes it suddenly bursts into ecstatic noise and then drops out into bass and then more marimba. Spellbinding stuff, musical sculpture really as much as music. 

Matt Gunn's Learning Through Loops came out in April this year, a Mark Cooper, the man behind Bedford Falls Players, remixed the title track and sent me a version of it months ago, another track I played at The Golden Lion in June. I fell for it the first time I played it and it's lost none of its impact, a gorgeous Balearic tune with squelchy bass, chuggy drums and a guitar part that sounds like something John Squire put down on tape at Battery Studios back in early 1989 when recording the Stone Roses debut lp and then never used. Over the top of this Mark has laid a vocal sample taken from TV, a voice talking about sound waves, binary problems in quantum systems, core computers, voodoo, 'shit like this', hidden variables, time travel, determinism, party tricks and the voice of Jesus. It's been played constantly round here, one of my favourite tracks of 2023, and you should all get on it. 

The third track on the EP is Matt's remix of BFP's Chug Hug, heavy duty chugging rhythm, gnarly guitars, bursts of synth and a surge in the second half as it all comes together for the climb to the peak. There are some clips of all three tracks at Soundcloud and I'll link to Bandcamp and Youtube later on today as and when things go live. Electric Wardrobe Records and the Three EP can be found here. Bedford Falls Players have a link to this time of year, something you'll no doubt be aware of if you've seen It's A Wonderful Life.