It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

A bit of Scottish progressive house from 1992 for you today.

The Slam boys and Soma weren't the only label out of Glasgow that was releasing quality house tunes during the early 90s there was also the 23rd Precinct and Limbo labels both of which were affiliated with the record shop in Glasgow with the same name. The sound of 23rd Precinct/Limbo was always, to me anyway a little more commercial than the edgier more upfront sound of Soma.

The record shop was staffed by c_ _ _s of the first degree. It was a common occurrence to get sneered at if you asked for something that the git behind the counter didn't approve of. They make Jack Black's character in High Fidelity look like the epitome of fair mindedness. If you were trying to get a hold of anything quite rare there was absolutely no point in going to 23rd Precinct unless you were part of their crew. On a few occasions I asked for tunes and could see the vinyl behind the counter only to be told that they didn't have it! Thank God that there were other dance music shops in Glasgow to frequent.

However the labels did release some great tracks by the likes of Havana, Harri and Sublime.

Fight the Feeling was produced by Mathew Brown and Graham Drinnan and came out as a white label only, on the 23rd Precinct label and is pretty typical of the releases around this time fairly progressive with a bit of piano. I remember flogging this to death when it came out. When I pulled it out earlier in the week I initially thought that it had dated badly, however after a couple of plays at volume I have revised my opinion and think that it holds up pretty well.

Sublime - Fight The Feeling

Why?

The other night during the ad break in something I was half watching, an ad for "Now That's What I Call The Best Dadrock, Pub Jukebox, Classic, Driving Anthems Ever, Volume Umpteenth" or some such equally fatuous title caught my attention. Snipets of all the usual suspects were played in the 30 second ad, The Undertones, Oasis, Coldplay etc etc and also things like Free, Elton John and bloody Bachman Turner Overdrive, ffs. This got me thinking what demographic is this compilation aimed at? It can't be aimed at the kind of people who read music blogs, (I'm trying not to use the term "serious music listeners") as I don't think that this group tend to buy mainstream compilations, I could be wrong but don't think so.

Even casual music listeners, who would want to play this sort of thing in the car will probably have the majority of these tracks and the ones that they don't, are they likely to fork out 12 quid for the cd when all of the tracks will be available in a digital format from itunes, eMusic or some other e vendor.

If this cd is aimed at kids to buy for Father's Day, I think that the marketeers are seriously deluded. What kid will go out and buy a cd of tracks which they can readily get off the internet for nada?

If in a few years M gave me a compilation cd he had burned I would be much happier than him buying one of these scattergun approach to music compilations at least if he had compiled it then some thought would have gone into it.

I just don't see the point of this type of compilation. A quick search on HMV shows that there are absolutely loads of these things out there. Why?

I do see the need for specialist compilations, such as dance mix cds, obscure Northern Soul or even obscurer indie that was only ever released in limited numbers on 7" vinyl, yes but not this mainstream stuff as it is all available elsewhere and with a little bit of effort you can make yourself a bespoke compilation better than any of these off the shelf

This accessibility to music wasn't always the case. As has been written here before and on many other blogs in the pre internet days it wasn't that easy to get a hold of tracks. even just a couple of years old.

Finally I get to the point of this post.

Pre download days, it wasn't unknown for me to buy a compilation album just for one or two tracks which was quite a costly way of getting hold of music. I would attempt to root out the singles, if the track had been released on that format. This meant a trip to the Barras in Glasgow on a Saturday and searching the 2nd hand record stalls.

On one occasion I asked one of the stall owners, who sort of specialised in soul if he had It Should Have Been Me by Yvonne Fair to which his reply was "What do you want that for, your bird dumped you or something?"

Here are 3 tracks from compilation albums that I bought solely for these songs.

First up is William Bell & Judy Clay - Private Number. It was originally released in 1968 on the Stax label. The copy I own is on a double lp released in 1986 called the Originals an album full of 60s soul staples from the likes of the Isley Brothers, Sam Cooke etc. If I remember rightly this album was released on the back of the retro Levi 501 ads which at the time started us all wearing boxer shorts and lying in the bath in our new jeans.

William Bell & Judy Clay - Private Number

Next we have Bettye Swann with her cover of a Neville Brothers track Tell it Like It Is from What's Happening Stateside a sampler album of artists on the Stateside label. This album was probably the best £2.99 I've ever spent as it introduced me to a whole raft of soul artists I had never heard of before such as Irma Thomas, Z.Z. Hill & Jimmy Holiday.

Bettye Swann - Tell it Like It Is

The third track is from a soundtrack album. I first heard Tipitina by Professor Longhair when I saw The Big Easy with Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin and couldn't get it out of my head. The only way to get the song was to buy the rather pricey, at the time soundtrack cd, which is patchy although it does have a live version of the Neville Brothers doing Tell It Like It Is.

Professor Longhair - Tipitina

Dad, Sure Them Cidermen Aren't Real?

A great day was had by all but alas no Rose Tyler. M was particularly scared of the Daleks but was happy that he got to see his favorites, the Sontaran. I don't think that it was the full exhibition though, there was no finale as Mondo mentioned in the previous comments.

I even got to go to Fopp and Oxfam Music.

BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Dr Who Theme

BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Dr Who Theme ( Unreleased U.N.K.L.E Reconstruction)

Orbital - Dr Who

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I've been a little distracted lately. too much going on in my head, hence the lack of content and the brevity of recent posts. I think that things may get back to normal soon.

I've got a couple of days off, as yesterday was Lanimer Day, our town's equivalent of a Gala Day, I was going to rant on about this and the underlying feudalism of the whole day but I won't bother.

Anyway, I'm taking M to see the Doctor Who exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow today. I think that I may be looking forward to it more than M. "Will Rose be there?" he asked this morning to which I could only reply " If only M, if only".

As it is Friday, it's time for a dance. Today's track Weak Become Heroes by The Streets sums up beautifully how those early days of raving felt, the optimism and positivity of the whole scene before the gangsters and the bad pills took over. Ashley Beadle houses things up somewhat on the remix posted here.

Streets - Weak Become Heroes (Ashley Beadle's Love Bug Vocal)

Touched By The Hand Of God (V)

It has been a while since I featured the talents of Mr Weatherall.

How about some voodoo skank from Lord Sabre along with Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns in the form of the Sabres of Paradise. Wilmot was originally on the excellent Haunted Dancehall album. The version posted is the 12" single version.

Sabres of Paradise - Wilmot

Without Whom

Here are a couple of tunes from the band without whom, my record collection would be a rather sorry state of affairs. As if they had not existed then at least 80% of my favorite bands would never have been formed either.

I have often wondered how my music tastes would have evolved if I hadn't sought out the Velvet Underground. Would I now be listening to a lot more chart friendly music or god forbid ended up not that interested at all?

As I've mentioned before, when I first heard The Jesus and Mary Chain I was hooked, so much so that I eagerly sought every article I could find on the band. The group that seemed to be referenced in every piece of writing about JAMC was The Velvet Underground whether it was in relation to the music or the look, the black clothing and Ray-Bans. At this point I didn't know much about the Velvet Underground apart from Lou Reed had been in the band and also vaguely, the Andy Warhol connection.

In those pre-internet days and also before everybody's back catalogue was available on cd it was quite difficult and costly to get your hands on records by "cult" bands. I was lucky enough to have a mate who had an older brother who was into The Velvets due to being a huge Orange Juice /Postcard fan. He taped The Velvet Underground And Nico and White Light White Heat for me. I was instantly won over from the opening music box like notes of Sunday Morning to the final thrashes of Sister Ray. From then it was my mission to get all 4 studio albums on vinyl. Since then I have bought all the Velvets stuff I've come across from the necessary Live 1969 double album to the purely exploitative Live at Max's Kansas City.

Screeds have been written about the Velvet Underground over the years and I don't have anything insightful to contribute to what has already been said. The only thing that I can say is that a lot of the music that I have grown to love over the years wouldn't exist if it hadn't been for the influence of Cale, Reed, Morrison and Tucker.

Both of the tunes posted here are from the 1985 released VU album which was a collection of tracks recorded between Feb 1968 and September 1969 which had apparently been lost and the tapes of which were discovered when the record label were preparing to re-release the first 3 albums.

The Velvet Underground - I Can't Stand It

The Velvet Underground - Foggy Notion

The Raveonettes, Again

As I've stated before I love the Raveonettes live and really like the recorded stuff but don't think that it does their live sound justice.

Here are another couple of tracks from previous albums, as it doesn't look as though there will be any new tracks or a tour for that matter in the forseable future.

As others have pointed out there is nothing revolutionary in their sound, yes it is derivative and the lyrics are not deep and meaningful; I think that they are rather good none the less.

The Raveonettes - Remember

The Raveonettes - Somewhere in Texas

CDs You Need To Buy

Everybody should own this CD, it is absolutely fucking wonderful.

Go on you know you want to. At 3 quid it is an absolute bargain.

Withered Hand - I Am Nothing

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

This Friday it's time for a couple of mid tempo northern soul tunes.

First up is my second favorite Northern tune ever, Just Loving You by Ruby Andrews.There are only two words to describe this tune, absolutely and gorgeous; nothing else needs to be said.

Ruby Andrews - Just Loving You

Now for a bit of blue eyed soul. Bobby Paris is well known on the northern scene with the tracks Night Owl, Personally and this track, which I think is his best.

Bobby Paris - I Walked Away.

Not a lot in the way of information on these tracks but when the songs are this good you don't need me pontificating about them.

Use Your Vote!

If you are reading this in the UK , like me you are probably totally switched off by politics and have very little trust in the politicians at Westminster.

No matter how hacked off I am at the moment with politics , I still believe that it is my duty to vote in the European election today and I urge everybody feeling disillusioned to do the same, no matter who you vote for, even the SNP if you must (in Scotland anyway).

If you believe that by not voting you are lodging a protest against the system or the main parties then I think that you are gravely mistaken. By protesting in this manner you may be aiding the odious BNP or the equally ridiculous UKIP to get a foothold in mainstream politics; especially in England where local elections are also taking place.

I have had the arguments with friends as to what is the point of voting, the stock argument being "my vote doesn't make any difference anyway", this is what the BNP and UKIP are hoping for; that enough people think like this and in combination with the lies that they have been peddling to people who are sick of what has been going on and yes, gullible. I wasn't going to say that but to vote for these parties you really have to have either fascistic tendencies or be very stupid to believe the hatred that they spout.

So please use your vote, no matter who you vote for. Apart from either of the jokes mentioned above, if you intend to vote for them fuck off, you're not wanted here.

I know the system isn't ideal but it's what we've got. To quote a famous Tory (I never thought that I would ever be doing that)- Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time

Billy Bragg - An Accident Waiting To Happen

The Men They Couldn't Hang - The Ghosts of Cable Street

"You're a big man, but you're in bad shape"

This came on the iPod the other day and I thought it was worth sharing.

The Deadly Avenger mix is just one of 4 remixes of the Get Carter Theme on a 12" single released in 1999. I have no idea why someone decided to remix the track but a couple of the mixes are quite good, this one and the Lionrock one.

Roy Budd - Get Carter (Deadly Avenger remix)

Ellen Allien

A little bit of teutonic techno to start the week of to a bang.

Ellen Allien is one of the leading lights in the Berlin and European electro/trance scenes. She started djing in 1992 and landed a residency at Tresor, one of the most influential clubs for techno over the last couple of decades. Subsequently she has had her own radio show, organised parties, started 2 labels, the shortlived Brain Candy and BPitch Control on which she has released her six albums and numerous others including Modeselektor and Apparat and one of my favorite albums this year by Moderat.

The track posted was the lead single from the 2005 album Thrills. I first heard this one day when lurking round Fopp looking for something different about 4 years ago. Asked the guy behind the counter what it was, bought the album which turned out to be just the sort of thing I was looking for.

Ellen Allien - Magma

Somfay

I have been listening to a lot of electronic music over the past couple of months as most of the indie/guitar stuff with the exception of the Wave Pictures new album and the Meursault ep I have heard recently at best can be described as boring. Somebody prove me wrong.

I keep coming back to a track by Somfay called Fricative White (From A Whisper To A Scream). The track is quite a curiosity as there are no discernible instruments and really no tune. It is basically made up from layers of noise building upon layers of noise to produce a hypnotic track which echoes around your head long after the track has finished.

At 27 : 47 mins long, it does ask for a bit of commitment, however once you get into it, it is really hard to believe that it is that long, as the sounds totally suck you in and you are soon lost in the music/noise.

I usually have it on just as soon as I can after take of on a plane, as it calms me right down, which is no mean feat as anybody who has ever flown with me will testify; flying scares the shit out of me.

I hope that the length and mention of noise hasn't put you off, give it a try. It is a strangely haunting and beautiful collage of sound (how fucking pretentious does that sound?)

Go on give it a listen!

Somefay - Fricative White (From A Whisper To A Scream)

While The Sun Shines.

Get yourself an ice cold can of Irn Bru, roll a fat one and listen to this in the garden in the glorious sunshine.

Smith & Mighty - Walk On (Long version)

How Good Are ?

Absolutely bloody brilliant.

The Wave Pictures - If You Leave It Alone

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

I don't know why but I've been listening to a lot of stuff from 1987 recently, probably nostalgia. I have came to the conclusion that it was a very good year for House and Hip Hop.

Today's posting is by Eric B and Rakim, the duo who released my favorite hip-hop album Paid In Full.

I Know You Got Soul was the second single from the album and was originally released in 1987. The track features so many couplets which would be sampled or repeated in future hip-hop and dance tracks from the opening line "it's bin a long time/I shouldna left you" to the final words "Rakim a say Peace" but possibly the best known and most sampled is "pump up the volume". The orignal tune is an updating of Bobby Byrd's 'I Know You Got Soul' with Rakim's unmistakable rapping over Eric B's beats.

The version posted is the 1988 remix, which I think was released on the back of the success of the seminal Coldcut remix of Paid in Full. Instead of Coldcut, the remixers here were Double Trouble alias Danny D and one Norman Cook on his first foray into dance music after the Housemartins split up. The remix was done without the knowledge of Eric B and Rakim and was basically put together by Cook using the a capella from the b-side of the original single over the top of a rather famous break and piling on the samples, as he didn't have access to the masters of the original. I don't think that they would get away with that these days, definitely not on a dance off shoot of a major as a bootleg white label maybe.

Eric B & Rakim - I Know You Got Soul (Six Minutes of Soul, Double Trouble remix)

Imelda May

I'm off to see Imelda May again tonight. Last time it was like going back in time to the late 50's, more quiffs than a Smiths convention.

Imelda May - Wild About My Lovin'

Blue Harlem - Drown In My Own Tears

The Blue Harlem track is from when Imelda May was the singer with them, their sound is more jazz and blues than the more rockabilly feel of her solo stuff.

Sister Sneaker Sister Soul

This was the first thing that I heard from My Latest Novel, a 5 piece band from Greenock. As befits a band from the dreich Clyde coast their music is quite melancholic at times but not depressingly so. Sister Sneaker Sister Soul was their first single and can be found on the excellent debut Wolves.

They have just released their second album Deaths and Entrances last week, which I haven't got round to listening to yet.

My Latest Novel - Sister Sneaker Sister Soul

What the fuck was that?

Those were the exact words I uttered on my introduction to Upside Down by the Jesus and Mary Chain.

A lot of people go on about the first time that they heard the Smiths and the effect that ultimate indie band had on them but I didn't really get it. I am not here to slag off the Smiths, I really like some of the band's output, however I never really got into that sensitive, Oscar Wilde quoting, 60's kitchen sink drama side of them that some of the fanboys I knew did and as for the celibacy thing that was incongruous to a hormonally charged 15 year old.

What I'm trying to get at here is that I hadn't had that Damascean moment that a lot of my friends had and I was beginning to wonder why not? I liked a lot of different music from Hendrix to The Clash and SLF but there was nothing that I was fanatical about, nothing that was mine.

Until that dark grey day at the beginning of 1985, a couple of months after the single's release, when a friend gave me a compilation tape that his elder brother had made. I rewound the tape and played Upside Down over and over again which was quite painfully through the earphones of my red Sony Walkman. I just couldn't get enough of the track. I had found my band, I thought. The track had everything, primal drumming, vicious feedback an underlying feeling of malevolence but beneath it all was a really catchy song.

I eagerly awaited the next single Never Understand, which didn't disappoint and the glorious debut that was Psychocandy the merits of which I could bang on about all day.

My love affair with the Mary Chain dissolved with the third album Automatic which to this day I have trouble playing. I did, however continue to buy everything they released and the odd glimmer of genius is apparent on all of their subsequent releases just not in abundance as on the first 2 albums.

From the Jesus and Mary Chain I found the Velvet Underground and Can who, eventually, with the help of a certain Radio 1 DJ led me to The Fall .

Jesus And Mary Chain - Upside Down

Just what is needed on a Sunday morning to blow the cobwebs away.

I remember watching the band's first appearance on the Whistle Test and looking on in awe until my mate, S broke the spell, saying "if that was John Lydon, the mic stand would have went over on the first attempt, they're playing at it" which sparked a highly charged discussion.

Everybody Loves A Cover . . . Right?

A couple of mellow, relaxing covers for you today.

First up is Mechanical Bride with a cover of Rihanna's Umbrella. The song has been covered a ton of times to varying degrees of success from The manic Street Preachers to Tegan and Sara. This version by Lauren Doss is by far the best, excluding the original, she turns it into a melancholic thing of beauty. Umbrella in it's original form was my song of 2007, I can't think of a single tune from that year that I enjoyed more than it, it would have been perfect if it was not for Jay - Z pointless piss poor rap at the start.

Mechanical Bride - Umbrella

Next is a cover of Pressure Drop originally by Toots & The Maytals, covered here by Irish singer/songwriter David Kitt. Pressure Drop is another track which has been covered a fair few times, most notably by the Clash but also by Robert Palmer and The Specials.

David Kitt - Pressure Drop