Ha Fucking Ha!

Sometimes I nearly forget just how good Meursault were. Criminal I know but then I'll play something and I will just get lost again in the work of Neil Pernnycook. Settling can be found on the third album, Something For The Weakend which was released in 2012. Below also is the Cairn String Quartet's take on the tune, our Raith Rovers supporting friend, JC was at the recording of this.

I am in Luton tomorrow and Thursday, deepest joy as ever. So nothing else 'til Friday. But spare a thought for me tomorrow evening when I will be on a "team building" activity before dinner after a 04:30 rise. Ha fucking ha, indeed.

Meursault - Settling

Monday's Long Song

Eat Lights Become Lights is a bit of a wanky name and I suppose some would call the music that the London 4 piece make "wanky" too, with the obvious influence of 70s experimental German rock and electronica in their sound. I am quite fond of a bit of "pretentious wank" now and again and find ELBL a very pleasant listen, No more so than on this, the title track from the band's 4th album released in 2014. To be honest I was intending to post the Fuxa remix of this track but it appears that I haven't ripped that particular piece of vinyl yet,  I thought I had. So the original will have to do but it is still quite a lovely thing to hear on a Monday morning.

Eat Lights Become Lights - Into Forever

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I don't know anything about this absolutely lovely mellow piece of tech house other than it's German and was released as part of a ridiculously rare and therefore expensive 12" single , the cheapest copy on Discogs is 130 quid, it's good but really no where near that good.

Airdrie managed to halt the slide down the table into the relegation zone last week, granted it was only by the game at Dumbarton being called off but still it wasn't another defeat and hopefully the week has given the players and coaching staff to come up with a game plan on how to start winning matches and getting clear of the bottom three. Tomorrow they take on Forfar who are up the other end of the table in third so the hopes are not high but jesus they need to do something.

Have a good weekend people.

Scared

I was listening to Rockferry, the debut album from the Welsh singer who is best known for pseudo northern soul song Mercy and I was pleasantly surprised, To these ears this attempt at blue eyed soul hasn't dated particularly and has some cracking songs with really effective instrumentation not least the strings on today's track Scared, I don't think that Duffy was taken very seriously at the time and unfairly compared to the incomparable Amy Winehouse whose classic Back To Black had been released a couple of years prior to Rockferry.

I really enjoyed reacquainting myself with this album and won't leave it as long before I play it again. Just a pity that Duffy's career seemd to fizzle out after just a couple of years and two albums. Although I can understand that there might not be longevity in the retro sound that she had.

Duffy - Scared

Make Me Sad

This is a little bit of a curio this track, the AA side of a split 7" inch single, a cover of a Vic Goddard song recorded at Stow College in Glasgow (the same place where Belle and Sebastian's debut was recorded) by a local band released on a Hamburg record label, Aufgeladen und Bereit, named after a Fire Engines album. And that's about all I know. As far as I can ascertain the band never released anything else leaving only this lovely bit of sweetly harmonious, female sung indie pop.

I suspect that this one may appeal to a certain friend in Seattle.

not a bad record to start a Wednesday.

Kingfishers - Make Me Sad

Interstate 5

I am down in Leeds for the second time in less than a week and it looks like it is going to be a regular occurrence for the foreseeable. I won't be taking Interstate5, rather it will be M74/M6/A66/M1.

The Wedding Present - Interstate 5 

Monday's Long Song

A bit of Jazzy, Housey, Italian blue-eyed soul to bright up your Monday morning. I love this track, especially the trumpet which reminds me of Have You Ever Heard It Blue by the Style Council.  I have no idea what the rest of Mario's output is like as I haven't bought anything other than this 12" single ( not sure how I have 2 copies of this though!) which also includes a rather good Opolopo remix.

Mario Biondi & The High Five Quintet - This Is What You Are

Hal Blaine

Very sad news that the drummer responsible for the most distinctive and possibly copied drum intro of all time on my favourite single of all time has died. He also was the drummer on many of the best records of the 1960s.

A few years ago I had a playlist called Boom Boom Cha!, which really should have been Bum- ba-bum-BOOM and was filled with tracks that included the drum break mentioned above. I think before the playlist was wiped out after one of my iTunes crashed I had 25 tracks that had "borrowed" that famous intro and that list was by no way definitive.

I have often wondered if Hal Blaine was as proud of that intro as he should have been, he has stated that it was a mistake and he had accidently missed a beat but was told to just keep doing that by Phil Spector. Or did it niggle at him all of these other drummers ripping him off. I don't think that it would have bothered him too much as when you have played on over 6000 tracks, 40 number 1 hits, 150 top ten songs and possibly the only drummer to have played with Sinatra, Elvis and John Lennon you can take it in your stride when you hear others imitate you.

Here are just some of the songs that you will know but may not have been aware of who the drummer was :- He's A Rebel, Rhythm of the Rain, It's Over, Surf City, I Get Around, Mr Tambourine Man, Strangers In The Night and Cecelia.

Rest easy Hal.

The Ronettes - Be My Baby

Barry Maguire - On The Eve of Destruction

Self Esteem

Now that I have actually got a copy of this album that I can actually play, the pictures above are of the first copy I was sent, I can confirm that Rebecca Taylor is one very talented individual. This album is full of hip hop beats, pop hooks and pretty to the point lyrics and about as far removed from Trophy Room as it is possible to get. I hope that this album reaches a bigger audience than Slow Club did, Still have no idea what the fuck Laura Snapes in the Guardian was on about with her " . . . a million miles away from her old band's steady decent into Radio 2 pleasantries" line in her review of Compliments Please, Taylor's first solo outing as Self Esteem.

Monday's Long Song

I never really got into Beck, I liked a few things and of course bought Odelay, I'm sure it was compulsory back in 1996,  but I purchased the 12" of  Where It's At solely for the U.N.K.L.E. mix,  back in the mid 90s I was obsessed with all things Mo Wax so much so that I had every release from MX014, my introduction to MW069, after which I began to get a bit more selective and only bought the UNKLE releases on the label. Unfortunately I only have 12 left, all the others going in the great iPod funding sell off that still causes me cry every now and then but I digress and if I think about this any more I will only get really depressed.

The original of Where It's At is pretty good to be fair and was produced by the Dust Brothers but the U.N.K.L.E mix turns a three and a half minute slacker tune and turns it into a dark epic with some great beats and even better scratching. Talking about scratches, I can only apologise for the crackles on this, it was played a lot and possibly not treated as well as it should have been due to my lack of co-ordination when I had the urge to play this.

Beck - Where It's At (U.N.K.L.E remix)

It's Friday . . .Let's Dance

The East Village Loft Society were Ashley Beedle and Uschi Classen and they released a couple of singles, the first one I Wanna Sing Sunshine is my favourite. It is a typical piece of early nineties  House and none the worse for that. The 12" single contained 5 different mixes, the one that hits the spot for me is Boomshanka Message mix with its use of Maya Angelou reading her poem On The Pulse Of The Morning from President Clinton's inauguration.

Last week's much awaited home win for Airdrie was much welcomed.  An incredibly poor first half by both teams followed by  a nail-biting second period waiting for what we all believed to be the inevitable equaliser to cancel out Daryl Duffy's 47 minute opener but which thankfully for once failed to happen.  The team have played much better and fared worse this season but a win's a win and is something to build on, well it would have been if this week's game wasn't away to Kirkaldy to take on Raith Rovers who the Diamonds have yet to beat this season. Raith's form has not been great recently with only one win in the last 6 matches and they will be looking for a boost to try and get back to second spot in the table. Let's hope Airdrie can pull an away win out of the bag tomorrow.

Have a good weekend people.

The East Village Loft Society - I Wanna Sing Sunshine (The Message mix)

You Don't Know

Ellie Greenwich is responsible for some of the greatest moments in pop music, there can be no dispute about this it is just a fact. Whether that be with her one time husband Jeff Barry and Phil Spector or later, on her own. She was also responsible for a single that inexplicably bombed in 1965.

Greenwich very rarely recorded here own material but in 1965 she released a single containing two absolutely sublime songs, the up tempo Baby which was later claimed by the northern soul scene and has therefore been bootlegged and is possible to get a hold of on vinyl. The other side, the heart wrenching You Don't Know on the other hand is only available these days on a couple of compilation albums as the original Red Bird single is impossible to find. Shadow Morton's production is nothing short of perfect on this song.

Ellie Greenwich - You Don't Know

My Love Grows Deeper

Clydie King, is probably best known, if at all, as a session singer for the likes of Joe Cocker,  The Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan. I first heard of her when I bought the excellent "What's Happening Stateside" compilation way back in 1987 where her duet with Jimmy Holliday, "Ready, Willing and Able" was included.

During the 60s she released a string of singles across the Speciality, Philips and Imperial labels. Possibly my favourite track, like many from this era is not the song that the label thought would be the more popular,  My Love Grows Deeper was the flip side of the 1965 release Missin' My Baby on Imperial, The vocals on the track sound as if they were recorded half way down a mine shaft which for me enhances the track which just oozes sensuality.

Clydie King - My Love Grows Deeper

Monday's Long Song

A couple of weeks ago I posted Cantaloop by US3 from their debut album, Hands On The Torch that liberally plundered the Blue Note back catalogue for samples. One of the other stand out tracks on the album, Riddim sampled the brilliant jazz guitarist Grant Green's interpretation of Don Convey's Sookie Sookie.  This version is from the 1970 released Alive album which is well worth picking up, it is also available on a rather good Blue Breakbeats compilation which will have you playing " where have I heard that before" for absolutely ages as Green has been sampled by loads of people including Public Enemy, Kendrick Lamar and Coldcut.

Grant Green - Sookie Sookie

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I've had the album, Versions,  that today's track comes from on quite a bit recently. The Idjut Boys are known for their dancefloor filing tracks but this album mostly goes in a different direction, more mellow ambient sound with quite a bit of dub, sure there are beats but they are lazy and more to get your head nodding than your feet moving. Kenny Dub Headband has a nagging piano refrain, courtesy of Bugge Wesseltoft,  and some marvellous finger clicking and hand claps. With all the echo and delay their seems to be plenty of space in the music. One to nod to perhaps rather than dance,

Who would support a third tier pish Scottish football team I find I constantly ask myself. Not people who want to keep their blood pressure under control or stay sane anyway. Airdrie were twice ahead against the league leaders last Saturday only to end up losing 3-2. Tomorrow the Diamonds take on Montrose who are sitting one place above in 5th place but 4 points ahead, so a win tomorrow won't see Airdrie climb the table but it would give us rather despondent supporters something of a lift, There have only been 4 home wins so far this season and none in 2019, Pretty pish state of affairs really.

Have a good weekend people.

Idjut Boys - Kenny Dub Headband