Monday 31 August 2015

Bank Holiday Soul



Today's piece of soul has that unmistakable sound that means that it could only come from one city, Detroit. It was released in 1968 and sounds like one of those records from Hitsville USA that unfathomably failed to chart. It was in fact released on NY label Wand but produced by Herman Griffin a native of the Motorcity. Diane Lewis along with her sister Pat Lewis have records that are much loved within the northern soul community both as solo artists and members of the group The Adorables.

Diane Lewis - Without Your Love.

Sunday 30 August 2015

Mellow Sunday



Feeling remarkable alright today after the family b-b-q yesterday. The rain stayed away and earlier in the day Airdrie won by a solitary goal in probably one of the direst games I have had the misfortune to watch. Still a win's a win.

Today's track is from Holly Williams excellent first album, The Ones We Never Knew. I'm sure she gets pissed off with this but Ms Williams is the latest member of her family to grace the recording studio as her father is Hank Williams Jnr and her grandfather then obviously was Hank Williams Snr. The album is well worth purchasing.

Holly Williams - I'll Only Break Your Heart

Saturday 29 August 2015

Boy's Own Recordings - The Twelves #2





The second single for Boy's Own was something completely different for the time, very dubby, trippy and about as far from four to the floor as it was possible to be and still be vaguely danceable. I have to own up to the fact that until I bought this 12" I had never heard of Jah Wobble's Invaders of The Heart although they had been on  the go for a decade at the time of this release. I knew who Jah Wobble was but that was it. I suspect that the record was bought on the strength of the words on the back of the sleeve "mixed and re-structured by Andy Weatherall". If you listen very closely to the Miles Away mix  from about the 8 minute mark you can hear a drum sample that Lord Sabre later uses to good effect on Come Together. Also included in this mix is the obligatory sample  in 1990, the "woo alright". On the labels it states on one side Not Club and on the flip Club, however I can't really discern what makes the  Miles Away mix more dancefloor friendly. I will post both so you can compare and contrast.

Jah Wobble and The Invaders of The Heart - Bomba (Nonsonicus Maximus mix)

Jah Wobble and The Invaders of The Heart - Bomba (Miles Away mix)

Friday 28 August 2015

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



I think that I will keep going with the tracks from A Short Film About Chilling as last week's tune by 808 State had the most downloads of the week. Today's track comes from Jack Dangers' Meat Beat Manifesto. You may recognise the track or part of it if you don't know it, as it was sampled by Future Sound Of London for Papua New Guinea which if I remember correctly Dangers didn't take too kindly to which is surprising as this track uses numerous samples to great effect not least Boney M and the breakbeat sample from Bobby Byrd's Hot Pants. This track was very influential on upcoming producers of dance music as a case can be made that this is the record that kickstarted the whole UK Hardcore and Jungle scenes.

I will be going to the football tomorrow, hopefully Airdrie can put the 5 nil gubbing by Rangers during the week behind them! Afterwards we will be hosting a family barbeque which means it is a stick on that it will be pishing down.

Have a good weekend people.

Meat Beat Manifesto - Radio Babylon

Thursday 27 August 2015

I Love You More Than You Love Me



Greg Wilson is a master at the edit and here is a fine, fine example of that. Dug this out a couple of weeks ago and it fair cheered me up until I realised that the original came out twenty six years ago! Jesus that made me feel old. It may take you a couple of minutes to click who this is if you hadn't heard it before but once you do I bet your mood will lighten. Perfect sunshine pop stretched out to eleven minutes that could grace any dance floor. I especially love the breakdown with the strings just over 6 minutes in. Lovely stuff.

This edit was a double a side 12" released in 2012, the flip being an edit of Rich Girl by Gwen Stefani which is also rather good

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Krankenhaus?



I'm not quite sure how I feel about British Sea Power, I have loved some of the singles like A Lovely Day Tomorrow, Remember Me and Carrion but it wasn't until the third album Do You Like Rock Music that I was able to listen to one of their albums all the way through. I found the first two to be patchy. The ep, Krakenhaus that preceded the third album was an indication of things to come as every track on the that was excellent especially the nine minute The Pelican which is a rather raucous affair. Unfortunately since this album and ep I sort of lost interest but the 2013 album Machineries Of Joy saw them produce something nearly on a par with those two earlier releases.

British Sea Power - The Pelican

Tuesday 25 August 2015

You Wanna Go For A Ride?




Just a quick post not had any time to think of anything for today. This came on the ipod the other day and made me smile as it was one of Max's favourite songs when he was five/six and it was always a little disconcerting him singing "she said you wanna go for a ride, I got thirteen hours to burn and I'm gonna stay up all night" out of the blue. I am still quite perplexed by my liking of Greg Dulli's many incarnations,  I have never been able to put my finger on quite why I like 99% of the stuff that he puts out but very little if anything in a similar vein.

The Twilight Singers - Teenage Wristband

Monday 24 August 2015

Wait Until It Happens To You



Here is a belter of a piece of soul from the ever dependable Jewel Records out of Shreveport, Louisiana. Harrison D Nelson, otherwise known as "Peppermint Harris" was originally from Texas but cut four singles for Jewel in 1965 from what I can find out, Wait Until It Happens To You from the catalogue numbers appears to be the third single and for my money is also the best. I have never seen a copy of this single unfortunately and this recording comes from the excellent "Northern Soul of Jewel-Paula-Ronn " compilation.

Peppermint Harris - Wait Until It Happens To You 

Saturday 22 August 2015

Boy's Own Recordings - The Twelves #1



Whilst rifling through the 12" singles trying to work out just how many of the tracks from A Short Film About Chilling I inevitable pulled out Raise by Bocca Juniors and while playing it an idea for a series came to me, why not post all off the Boy's Own records in order.  After all I did buy them all except one, which really isn't worth bothering about. Then I wondered what would be the point, as quite a few of the tracks had been featured here previously and the rest will have popped up one time or another on the other blogs that we all frequent.  But then I decided, fuck it, I haven't came up with anything better recently and I will try and post the mixes that don't get featured very often where possible.

Everyone knows the Boy's Own story, a bunch of chancers decided to produce a fanzine poking fun at the club culture of the mid 80s, only to end up as leading lights and taste makers in the next phase of that culture, hosting parties, djing and producing "music for Blue's Beano's and Barndances". Twenty nine years after the first fanzine was printed most of them are still involved in club culture and making music.

The first single on the label was the incredible Raise by Bocca Juniors, according to Weatherall a record made by committee and none the worse for it. The line up for the record was Terry Farley, Andrew Weatherall, Hugo Nicolson and Pete Heller, the vocals were sung by Anna Haig and Protege contributes the rap. The record owes a lot of it's appeal to the genius use of snatch of Jesus On The Payroll by Thrashing Doves  from a few years previously.

The single came out  in 1990 on 12" CD and 7" with a distinctive cover, another cool thing about Boy's Own was their graphics, very distinctive. Their was also a remix twelve with a couple of versions by Tackhead, which I was going to post but at the moment can't locate the 12", so I will go for Philly House Skank and the Heavenly Rap which both sounded particularly fine last evening.

Bocca Juniors - Raise (63 Steps To Heaven) Philly House Skank

Bocca Juniors - Raise (63 Steps To Heaven) Heavenly Rap

Friday 21 August 2015

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



I think that this may be the last in this short series as if interest can be interpreted by downloads then there is a lot of apathy out there for this series. Today's track comes from 808 State, "world international blagging team" and another mob from Manchester. There is no way of getting away from the second wettest city in the UK at the moment in blogland. Founding member Martin Price also owned the Manchester record Shop, Eastern Bloc. Gerald Simpson (A Guy Called Gerald)was another original member of the team but left to do his own thing. They first came to prominence the year prior to Ibiza 90 when Gary Davies, a daytime Radio 1 Dj in the UK, heard the group's 2nd single Pacific State being played all over Ibiza, came back to the UK and started flogging it on radio show ensuring that it entered the UK charts reaching number 10. The group were part of the package of DJs and bands that invaded Ibiza for the fortnight of the Ibiza 90 gathering playing in the main clubs on the Island  In Yer Face wasn't actually released as a single until the following year.

Have a good weekend people

808 State - In Yer Face (In Yer Face mix)

Thursday 20 August 2015

Dreams



This song popped into my head today and took up residence, not sure why. it was used a few years ago for an advert for the Irish Tourist Board or something but I haven't heard it in years. On the back of Dreams I went out and bought the album, Every Body Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We which I recall was quite pricey at the time and came in a rather strange cover, black with a thin strip down the side which said  Audiophile Limited Vinyl Edition but what was really strange was that the inside sleeve was black card but also inside was a copy of the cd booklet. They obviously couldn't be arsed doing a proper inner sleeve. I don't think that I have played this album more than half a dozen times in total, it's a bit bland. I am slightly perplexed as to why the cheapest copy on Discogs is 40 quid. I don't think I have ever heard of anybody expressing any desire to own it, strange.

Anyway I played Dreams earlier on from the album, I thought I had it on single but that's Linger and it's a live version on a 10" single that I had completely forgotten I owned. It's not as good as this song which I think holds up quite well, although I did have an urge to play Sally Cinnamon straight afterwards which is not just a good song but a great one,

The Cranberries - Dreams

Wednesday 19 August 2015

Profound Lyrics?



I very rarely bother about what Smith is singing, some would say shouting tunelessly  about on Fall records. To me his voice is just another instrument, well more than that.  the most important instrument in the band, ah. I'm not one for analysing his words of wisdom or trying to make out that his rantings are the profound words of a prophet for instance in Blindness then he says "I was talking to Jane Seymour" I know he is talking pish. One thing I do know is that he rarely writes lyrics complementing people or experiences so on Lie Dream of a Casino Soul he is not looking fondly on the cult of the northern soul scene. It is however a cracking tune and a rare example when the studio version is better than the Peel session.

The Fall - Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul

Tuesday 18 August 2015

Long Rambling Post On My Reformation Prejudices



Did anybody buy the boxset of the Jesus and Mary Chain Barrowlands gig from last year? For fifty quid you could get a 12" album of the complete Psychocandy set, a further 10" of the "encores" that preceded the afore mentioned set, a cd containing all of the music and a forty page hard backed book. Those of you who have read this blog for a while will know that this sort of thing is like a red rag to a bull for me and being a Mary Chain completest it was doubly tempting until I had a hard look at myself. Half a ton, even to me seemed a tad expensive for 21 songs and a book and why did I want a recording of a gig that I had no interest in attending at the time and have subsequently regretted my decision for all of half an hour after reading Swiss Adam's account of the Manchester gig? I decided not to buy it. I could spend the money on something novel like new music or put towards a pair of Adidas Hamburg trainers.

But still it nagged at me. What if I got a copy of the main set? It had been produced for RSD 15 and if I had decided to get out of my bed at 5 am on 18th of April and ventured into Monorail it's a stick on that I would have bought it.. So with a couple of clicks of the mouse I was Discogs bound. Cheapest 35 quid, not much of a bargain there. Then I remembered that a couple of years ago on RSD I had bought a copy of Psychocandy on red and black splattered vinyl which had been played once and then filed. I counted up my copies of the album, the original bought when released back in 1985 which still sounded good but the cover was pretty tatty, there was the copy that came in the vinyl album box set and the RSD one, not to mention the cd  and the dble cd repackaged ones. I wouldn't miss the RSD one I reasoned with myself. So I decided to contact one of the sellers on Discogs of the Barrowlands album and see if he fancied swapping, like you did back in the day. My luck was in and we duly swapped albums. I knew that the red and black Psychocandy was worth more than the other album but I wasn't bothered about that. The seller after receiving the album got in contact and offered me anything in his collection up to a further £20 which was most generous I thought. So we were both happy with the deal. By the way the live versions sound okay, more polished and less shambolic than when I heard a lot of these tracks nearly thirty years ago but you would expect that to be the case.

Now, I will get to the point of the post. I have said before that I am no fan of the reunion tour and subsequent "product". You would never get the Fall doing this and quiet rightly so. I am of the opinion if you have nothing new to contribute and have to live off of past glories bow out gracefully.

I have heard the argument also, that this would be depriving younger fans of the chance to see them, well yes but that's life that's what music's all about. I never got the chance to see The Velvet Underground and I had no desire to see them back in 1993 as they were not the same people who recorded the first album, well they were but you know what I mean.

Aren't the Reid Brothers entitled to a pay out I hear you say. Well not really, we're not talking Leonard Cohen here, who had to go on the road as he was robbed blind by someone he trusted. As far as I'm aware nothing like that happened to the boys from East Kilbride, They owned their own studio and the music has been licensed to Hollywood films. If they snorted and pissed it all away, well then again, that is rock and roll.

In a nut shell if the JAMC release new material and it is any good then I will buy it. I know I am a hypocrite as I bought the vinyl box set when I had all the albums on vinyl apart from the BBC sessions and the live album. I never said that I was consistent.

Anyway, here is the last good thing that either of the Reid brothers recorded as far as I'm aware apart from their little sister's album. It wouldn't have been out of place on one of the last JAMC albums or Darklands for that matter. This came out in 2005 on 7" and includes Julie Barber on vocals but I don't know anything more about her.

Jim Reid - Song For A Secret


Monday 17 August 2015

Give Me A Chance



Today's track wasn't released on vinyl, more's the pity. It comes from one of Kent's most recent compilations Los Angeles Soul - Modern.s Black Music Legacy and just like all other compilations on the label the quality is extremely high.

Venetta Fields was a much in demand session singer in the 70s when she sung on records by the likes of Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones she now lives in Australia and is still active in music as a vocal coach and a gospel singer. This track comes from when Fields was singing with the Ikettes.

Venetta Fields - Give Me A Chance (Try Me)

Sunday 16 August 2015

Mellow Sunday



Here is an absolutely beautiful track by John Martyn from the One World sessions which inexplicably languished in the Island vaults until released on the Ain't No Saint boxset  in 2008.

I seem to have caught a stinking cold while in London, so feeling pretty sorry for myself at the moment.

John Martyn - All For The Love Of You

Friday 14 August 2015

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



Again it's back to 1990 for another track from the soundtrack to A Short Film About Chilling. The weather last week on the Kintyre peninsula couldn't have been further from what I would expect in the Balearics  what with the horizontal rain, the force nine gale and when the rain stopped long enough to get on the beach the ice cold water, still I was probably a lot more rested than I would have been after a week back in the day if I had bothered to go to Ibiza. I know nothing about this tune apart from it is a German production by Lutz Ludwig, who is no longer with us and on the label it states Berlin (West) which somehow makes it feel very old indeed.

Have a good weekend people.

L.U.P.O - Heaven Or Hell (Extended mix)




Tuesday 11 August 2015

Curtis Harding



I stumbled across this guy a few months ago and bought this single. I them decided to gamble on the debut album, Soul Power and am glad that I did as it was well worth the money. The sound reminds me a lot of the 70s output of that other Curtis, Mayfield although nothing here quite matches Mayfield at his best it is very good and a worthy addition to the record collection of anybody who is partial to a little soul music,

I'm in London with work from today until Friday and have had no time to complete any posts apart from a very rushed Friday dance thing.  So,  sorry but nothing here until then.


Curtis Harding - Keep On Shining

Monday 10 August 2015

Annette Snell



It isn't just Country music that comes out of Nashville, Tennessee, this might fine piece of smouldering soul was recorded there at the Soundshop and released on the local  Dial records label in 1973.

You Oughta Be Here With Me was the biggest hit for Florida born and previous member of the Fabulettes,Annette Snell. She had a further couple of hits the following year. In 1977 she was signed to Epic Records and recording with the Swampers session musicians in Muscle Shoals. After one of the sessions for her album she was tragically killed on her way home to Atlanta when Southern Airways flight 242 crashed in New Hope Georgia due to bad weather.

Annette Snell - You Oughta Be Here With Me

Sunday 9 August 2015

Mellow Sunday



That was quite a relaxing week away, well there is not a lot to do in Machrihanish when it's pissing down which it did, a lot! I got through three books, Go Set A Watchman. which I found a lot more enjoyable than I expected after all the spoilers all over the press when it was released. last month. I wasn't that bothered about finding out that Atticus Finch was a racist, I've always found that people tend to let you down if you put them on a pedestal anyway and after all he was a fictional character, ffs.. I was more troubled over Jem's fate, that saddened me somewhat, even though he is no more real than his father. I also read The Last Days of Disco which had me roaring out loud with laughter. I will say no more about this at the moment but if you have any interest in mobile disco's in Ayrshire in the early 80s then this book is for you but if you don't but fancy a book that can have you laughing most of the time but also reduce you to tears, or at least have a lump in your throat at others then this is also for you. The third book on the reading list was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep of which I don't have very much to say, I found it to be a chore and was very glad when it was finished.

As there is always a wind on the Kintyre peninsula before we went I decided to invest in a kite. I wish I had done this years ago as I found it to be possible the most relaxing thing this side of a half ounce of squidgy black when the kite is in the air but I did find untangling the lines when the kite decided to go into a spin and crash to the deck, which it did a couple of times, rather frustrating resulting in a rise of bp. I'm already trying to think of locations round about where I could go fly my kite of a weekend. Sad, isn't it.

Enough of my rubbish holiday stories, here is possible the most mellow, gorgeous piece of music Mogwai have produced up until now. It was included on the 1999 released EP and includes The Cowdenbeath Brass Band.

Mogwai - Burn Girl Prom Queen