Friday, 30 March 2018

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



Here's a belter of an Easter egg for you. courtesy of Invernesian,  James MacDonald who is obsessed by all things egg like and is better known as Ege Bam Yasi. It is also fortunate that James also has a love of the 303 and is responsible for his own sub genre of dance music, MacAcid which fits right in with the theme for the past few weeks on a Friday .  Today's track from 1994 was released on SOMA Quality Recordings and contains a sample from a scene in a film that has been simulated the world over.

Tomorrow Leo ventures to our national stadium, Hampden, I have not been there since Airdrie's one nil defeat to Celtic in the 1995 Scottish Cup final. Tomorrow's game will be somewhat different but still an important one for the Diamonds as a win would see them safe in the first division with no prospect of finishing in the 9th place play off position. Queen's Park however need to get something from the game if they want to get out of the automatic relegation position. With only one win in the past for Airdrie I expect that it will be a pretty fraught affair.

Have a good weekend people.

Ege Bam Yasi - Acid Nation

Thursday, 29 March 2018

Reformation!



As you would expect I have been listening to a lot of Fall output over the past few weeks.  An album that I had not listened to in a while was Reformation TLC ((Traitors, Liars, Cunts), the album that Smith made with his makeshift group of the American "dudes" and members who would then be with him until his death  in January this year.  With the exception of Das Boat which is just pish and the trow away cover of Merle Haggard's White Line Fever , the album hangs together really well. Some have criticised the sound as muddied due to the two bass guitars, however on tracks like Fall Sound, My Door Is Never and above all Reformation it is the bass sound that propels the songs to being some of the strongest tracks from the last two incarnations of the gruppe.

The version of Reformation posted is the "Uncut" version which was released as the lead single from the album.

The Fall - Reformation! (Uncut)


Wednesday, 28 March 2018

Mona Lisa



There has been a lot of discussion and not all of it complimentary about the change in direction that The Lucid Dream have taken that is evident on SX1000, the first output from their yet untitled 4th album, what with it being full of the sounds of the 303 and the 808, personally I love it. When you listen to the previous albums there is an evolution and change of sound evident from the first, Songs of Lies and Deceit, through The Lucid Source to Compulsion songs released in 2016 granted it is not stark as it is on the new 12" but change there is, something which I always think is healthy.  The track posted is the opener from the second, eponymously titled album and for me is where psych rock and post rock collide in a raucous bass and drum driven epic tour de force full of distortion and phasing. Magic stuff.

I am really looking forward to the release of the new album and eagerly await the 12" single being delivered next week I haven't sickened myself off with it yet. There is also a possibility of seeing them live again , something which seemed unlikely last not so long ago as all of their gear was stolen after a show in Paris.

The Lucid Dream - Mona Lisa

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Night Beats



Dr John Cooper Clarke put me onto the Night Beats when he featured them one Sunday on 6Music when he was filling in for Jarvis Cocker. I have played the album Who Sold My Generation loads but apart from The Fuzz Club sessions and a remix by Jona Ma I haven't gotten round to exploring more of the Seattle based threesome's back catalogue which I think will need to be rectified in the near future. Posted is the first track from the third album mentioned above.

Night Beats - Celebration #1

Monday, 26 March 2018

It's Raining



There is not a lot I can say about this sublime piece of Louisiana soul.  You can just imagine a sticky humid night in the French Quarter and hearing the "Soul Queen of New Orleans" belting this out from one of the bars.

Irma Thomas - It's Raining

Friday, 23 March 2018

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



FFS! Not more acid house you say. 

Afraid so , I just can't get myself away from it at the moment, that and the psych/space rock of Psychic Lemon, Rancho Relaxo and the like, not exactly two cheeks of the same arse but similar in many ways. Today's track comes from relatively late in the day for the genre of Acid House, 1990 when a new sub genre of dance music seemed to evolve every fortnight or so.  Make U Scream was released on Chris Westbrook's Westbrook records,  out of Chicago, of course. Chris Westbrook is possibly better known as Bam Bam the man who produced  House classics like Give It To Me  and Feel The Beat. He was also responsible for some excellent remixes for the likes of Ten City and Coldcut.

Unfortunately, I am going to miss the first Saturday afternoon home game in what feels like ages, the last one was 17th February when the Diamonds beat Queen's Park 2-1. The team will have to play a whole lot better than they did in the second half on Tuesday night against Alloa, to get anything from JC's beloved Raith Rovers. Granted won of Airdrie's best players, Daryl Duffy  had to be stretchered off and will now be unavailable for the rest of the season after what looked like assault to me but didn't even see Alloa defender Fleming get a talking to from the ref. All I will say is Jim Goodwin has taught his players well. With six games to go I think, sadly that the play-off for the championships are beyon the Diamonds and a mid table finish is the best we can hope for which would be a hell of a lot better than what we all feared right up until just before Christmas.

Have a good weekend people

Bam Bam - Make U Scream (Original 12" Deep House mix)

Thursday, 22 March 2018

Mien



Psych rock supergroup alert. Black Habit is the first track released from the upcoming self titled  album from Mien , a band comprised of Alex Mass (singer with The Black Angels), Tom Furse (Horrors), Rishi Dhir  (Elephant Stone) and John Mark Lapam of the Earlies. The album has been ordered on the strength of this track which is just far too short. The album is out on 6th April and available for pre-order here

Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Yo! Ma Saint



I haven't been able to get this record out of my head ever since I first heard at on 6Music about a month or so ago. I love the Morricone(esque) guitar , the vocal back and forth between Michael Kiwanuka and the overall feeling of doom of the track.

Yo! Ma Saint is part of a three way arty project incorporating music, film and fashion. To be honest I hadn't even bothered seeking out the video until I decided on this post, since I bought the 7" and it all sounded a bit wanky to me and after watching the video I think that my initial thinking was correct but if you want to watch it click here. But below is the music without the visuals.

Tuesday, 20 March 2018

I'm Waiting For The Man



A couple of weeks ago 1969 the latest repackaging of the Velvet Underground was delivered. I had been looking forward to the arrival of this as my copies of VU and Another View, which this package basically is with some of the tracks cleaned up and a few other things from the 1969 recording sessions added,  have been around the block a few times. At first I was kind of disappointed with the sound as it is a very quiet pressing but when you turn it up to a reasonable volume you notice the difference from the albums that were released back in the 80s, there is more definition and sounds that I have never heard before or maybe I'm kidding myself on, could be. Anyway, the Velvet Underground recordings have never been held up as examples of high fidelity. Listening to this album inevitably led me back to The Complete Matrix Tapes which really does become more essential with every listen and so I thought that I would share another track from that collection and plumped for the second of four versions of I'm Waiting For The Man, all of which are great but this loose, bluesy version is my favourite which has some great guitar work from Sterling Morrison and a completely different feel to the frantic strung out version from the first album. It would have been something to have been in the audience during the Velvets residency at The Matrix in November1969.

The Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man (Matrix Tapes Version 2)

Monday, 19 March 2018

You've Been Gone Too Long


As soon as I hear the distinctive intro to this lovely bit of soul I can almost taste the 2 stroke as I'm transported back to the mid to late 80s and more than a few seedy pub "function suites" in Lanarkshire and beyond as this was popular with the Scooterists.

I can't really better what was written in Kev Roberts entry regarding this track in the indispensable Northern Soul Top 500:-

"This delicious 70's play from Blackpool Mecca was yet another of Ian Levine's masterstrokes. Smack in the middle of the customary 'stomper' set comes this easy groover which did sell locally around Tennesee,

Originally released on Impel Ann Sexton's classic was later picked up by Seventy7 records. A relative of Chuck Jackson, Ann went on to become a cult figure in the Southern States, performing at many Soul and Blues concerts"

Ann Sexton - You've Been Gone Too Long

Friday, 16 March 2018

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance





Back in the Windy City again this week with some deep deep acid. The 303 and the 909 are turned up to 11 on this mad piece of house music. If you are lucky enough to own a copy of  "There Are Dreams and There Is Escape" and you are willing to part with it you could be £500 better off making this probably the most sought piece of vinyl in House music. Jack Rabbit was better know to his mother as James Martin and he only released four 12" singles  all of which are absolutely essential before he sadly died of an asthma exacerbation in 1990. Rabbit TraxI was re-released on 12" single in 2014 with the acid mix of Only Wanted To Be on the flip on the Still Music label.

In football news, Stiff , Bat, Leo and myself and 508 others missed River City on Tuesday night to watch Airdrie scrape a 2 - 1 victory against Stanraer, it wasn't pretty but a win's a win as they say. Tomorrow they are away to forth place Alloa Athletic in the first of a double header which will conclude on Tuesday night.  With only eight games to go the Diamonds still need to amass as many points as possible and with a victory and a defeat against Alloa in the previous two meetings this season I think both games will be tight.

Below you will see the latest recruit to the Airdrie cause. Ross should have given him one to waer cause that tank top is fucking hideous! So far they have raised upwards of 11000  quid for the sensory room  from the auctioning of the signed shirts. Well do to all involved.



Have a good weekend people and keep on jacking.

James "Jack Rabbit" Martin - Rabbit Trax I (The Next Generation)

Thursday, 15 March 2018

Higher Than Heaven



Age of Chance are probably best remembered for their brilliant cover version of Kiss, which came out in a myriad of covers and mixes in 1986.

The band first came to the attention of most indie fans due to their inclusion on the infamous C86 NME compilation tape. After a couple of Peel sessions the band signed to FON records and recorded the cover of Kiss and a mini album Crush Collision, the re release of which came with a free single sided 12" featuring another mix of Kiss.

In 1987 the band signed to Virgin and recorded an album, the first by a UK group to incorporate a DJ scratching and sampling. One Thousand Years of Trouble was released in September 1987 and was completely novel, no indie band made sounds like this. I had the good fortune to see them around October/November 1987 in Aberdeen and found the live show absolutely stunning, although I was suffering from concussion at the time. DJ Powercut was an integral part of the set up by then and the live scratching and sampling certainly added to the sonic crush symphony the band produced.

During the following year the original vocalist Steve E left during the recording off the follow up album. A new vocalist was drafted in, Charles Hutchinson to completely re vocal the LP. When I first heard the resulting album Mecca, I was completely dismayed, gone was the sample heavy, beat laden, near industrial sound of old replaced by what I thought at the time was a terribly weak soul lite sound. I have had reason to reappraise this album over the years and now find that it is not as bad as I thought and quite a few of the tracks are actually rather good but completely different from the likes of Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Noise? or Take It from the debut album.

The band eventually split in 1991, after a career that failed to trouble the charts but did earn a No 2 position in the festive 50 of 1986 for Kiss which also hit number one in the indie charts the same year.

Posted is the standout track from the second album, Mecca, the soulful Higher Than Heaven. Which was released as a single in 1990 and reached the giddy heights of #53in the UK.

Age Of Chance - Higher Than Heaven 

Wednesday, 14 March 2018

If You Loved Me At All




I don't have as much by the Arch Drude, Julian Cope as I think that I should.  I did buy Saint Julian and My Nation Underground but that was about it apart from a couple of singles until we moved to this house when my neighbour over the back leant me a few things before he moved South and I bought some more recent things but I didn't go back and try to back fill as there just seemed to be too much of it. Two albums that have been on my "to buy" list for a long time are Peggy Suicide and Jehovakill which I have cdr's of but realise that I really need to own.  A few weeks ago both of these and another couple including Saint Julian are getting a limited re-release on vinyl on 6th April which saw them rise up to the top of the list. So I thought that I would post one of my favourite tracks from Peggy Suicide here in it's demo form which was available as a 7" single at the 1991 gigs.

Julian Cope - If You Loved Me At All

Tuesday, 13 March 2018

Going All The Way



If someone asked for an example that epitomises the garage/psych sounds of the mid 60s a great record to choose would be Going All The Way by the Squires. So it is very puzzling that I have never posted it before. The Squires who hailed from Bristol Connecticut were originally called the Rogues but when they signed a one-off deal with Atlantic Records to release this single in 1966 they were pressurised to change their name. The jangly guitars on this track are toughened up considerably by the pounding back beat from the rhythm section. The song also reminds me of another of my favourite tunes in the genre, Five Years Ahead Of My Time by the Third Bardo. Unfortunately the single like so many other great records of this time did not do anything nationally which led to the organ and bass players leaving and the band disintegrated when the singer was drafted to Vietnam.

The Squires - Going All The Way 

Monday, 12 March 2018

We Must Be Doing Something Right



I think that Berry Gordy may have said that when he first heard this very very Motown sounding record. We Must Be Doing Something Right was released on Sylvia Records in 1965. The label was set up  by  the tenor saxophonist Al Sears who previously worked for Duke Ellington. I think that may be him playing on this lovely piece of mid 60s soul. As far as I can find out Joan Moody cut another couple of singles between 1965 - 66 which were also played on the Northern scene but nothing else until a further  previously unreleased track, I Can't Stay Away,  was released on a Kent split single a few years ago which is also very good.

Joan Moody - We Must Be Doing Something Right

Friday, 9 March 2018

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



I think I will stick with the acid sounds of Chicago in the late 80s for  the next few weeks, So if you're not a fan of the squidgy sounds of the Roland 303 it might be best to head off somewhere else.  "As Acid Turns" was one of 5 tracks on the "Jack The House " ep released on the Trax label in 1998 by the Chicago artist Liddell Townsend.  A classic piece of Acid House, it does however come to a very abrupt end.

Airdrie are away to East Fife tomorrow, the men from Methil are sitting one place above the Diamonds in the table courtesy of one point so a win would see Airdrie up to sixth place.  It is going to be a busy couple of weeks for the team as they have matches this Tuesday evening and next to clear the backlog due to the bloody snow.

Have a good weekend people

Liddell Townsend - As Acid Turns (Original 12" mix)

Thursday, 8 March 2018

Rocky Votolato



Here is another guy that I found courtesy of John in the Morning on KEXP, if you have never listened to it, give it a go.  I have never found another radio station that plays as many records that I like, 6 Music doesn't come close, apart from when Dr John Cooper Clarke is guesting on a
Sunday but that's different.

Rocky Votolato, don't let the name put you off, started playing in a band called Waxwing, a rock band with punk leanings, however he began writing mellower songs which didn't fit in with the band's style and decided to go it alone. To date he has released 10 albums and the track posted today comes from the 2003 album Suicide Medicine, which is the best of the 3 albums I own.

Rocky Votolato - Mix/Tapes

Wednesday, 7 March 2018

Tell Me Something





The Rancho Relaxo album, White Light Fever was one of my favourite albums of 2015, sure you could pinpoint the influences, a bit of The Jesus and Mary Chain here, the Velvets there, especially the title and cover,  and Spacemen 3 amongst others but the mix of psychedelia, drone and Shoegaze, (I hate that term but it does fit, better than dreampop anyway) really struck a chord with me which should have been no surprise really.

The band released a further 5 track ep last year, Polarized. Very much mining the same seam as previously but why would you change direction when it sounds as good as this does. Tell Me Something is probably my favourite track. A lazy meandering track to ease your midweek blues.

Rancho Relaxo - Tell Me Something

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

They Don't Know




Monkey of the Monkeypicks blog posted this on Twitter last week and if it hadn't been for the preview of the Lucid Dream's first forays into Acid House revivalism this would have been the record of the week. An unashamed homage to the northern soul from the men from Tel Aviv who are signed to Acid Jazz. "They Don't Know" is a track from the band's second album "This City" from a couple of years ago. If this doesn't put a smile on your face then you must be even more of a "miserable fucker" than I am.

Monday, 5 March 2018

Do Your Thing



I can't think of a better way to start the week than with an extended slow burning funk groove*. Do Your Thing comes from the soundtrack from the film Shaft,  Although this is credited to Isaac Hayes the real stars of this track are the Memphis Strings & Horns and The Bar-Kays, the interplay between the horns and the wah-wah guitar is absolutely sublime, The track lasts for 19:32 and holds the attention til about the 17 and a half minute mark where it could have ended, I could have edited the last couple of minutes out but I think that it should be heard in it's entirety at least once.

Isaac Hayes - Do Your Thing (album cut)

* or it would have been if it had been posted in the morning

Friday, 2 March 2018

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance




Listening over and over to the forthcoming Lucid Dream track, which is a problem in itself as I may be sick of it by the time it is actually delivered, but I digress, has whetted my appetite to revisit the Acid House sounds of the late 80s. I loved this time, dancing in fields, going out on a Friday night and not knowing where you would end up or if you would be home in time to make work on the Monday morning, it was such an adventure but the main thing was the music, this strange machine made music that seemed to come from another world and appeared to evolve and change on a weekly basis. It was hard to keep up and even harder and more costly to procure the tracks that you had been moving to like a madman the previous weekend as they were mostly hard to find imports.  Thank god for the compilations on FFRR and the like, yes there were some horrible cash-ins but it was the most economic way to buy the music and you always kept enough to get the absolute belters on sometimes very dubious quality vinyl from Trax and DJ international.

A few years ago Harmless brought out a couple of pretty comprehensive box sets, Acid Rain and Acid Thunder, both compiled by Terry Farley which pulled together a lot of the great Chicago sounds  from the late 80s/early 90s, some absolute classics, some forgotten classics and some obscure sounds that should have been classics.

String Free originally came out on the Chicago label Hotmix 5 in 1988. it is the work of legendary Acid Innovator DJ Pierre, responsible for , in most people's eyes the first ever Acid record, Acid Tracks as Phuture. He is ably assisted on String Free by Daryl Ellis who is responsible for the piano melody that will bore into the back of your brain. The bass line supplied by Herb Jackson. This tune is just so so good.

Two Airdrie games this week, Tuesday night's already re-scheduled game with Alloa Athletic and tomorrow's against Stranraer have been abandoned, unlike my work, to the Siberian weather which has afflicted the UK this week, including the Duke (above).  So no football talk and Airdrie remain in 7th place in the table after last week's three - nil defeat at the hand of Ayr United.

Have a good weekend people.

Phortune - String Free

Thursday, 1 March 2018

SX1000



It's good to see that the Lucid Dream are back with new material. It was touch and go for a while as to whether the band were going to have to jack it in when all of their gear was nicked in Paris last year. However fans raised 10 grand for new equipment and the band have been in the studio recording their fourth album. SX1000, the first single to be taken from it sees a bit of a change in direction away from the psych rock of the previous three to a late 80s early 90s Acid House sound, I love it. The single can be pre-ordered here.

Does this mean there is going to be an Acid House revival? I do hope so.